Restoring Life
by xX12Anonymous97Xx
Summary: Kodi gets angry for a stupid reason, and suffers consequences greater than anything he'd ever imagined... Inspired partially by iWolf231, who put his stories on this site without caring what others thought.
1. Chapter 1

This was originally in the cross-over section, and will be moved back tomorrow. I put it on this category simply to see how many views it'd get.

Prologue

The Black Wolf was a slave to a group of very mysterious canines. These canines weren't that at all. They were time travelers, capable of going where ever they wanted whenever they wanted. Being able to do so meant they had built up a vast empire, with their base being in the year 2016. Since they had the ability to time travel, they had gone way ahead in time, and gotten a virus, and released it into the world. The virus could only affect the humans, however, meaning that within one year, all of humanity had disappeared from their time.

This had allowed the canines to take over that time, making dogs and wolves the ruling species of the world. They had originally come from a time way ahead of 2016, meaning they had the abilities to use human technology, and were able to teach the native dogs how to use it quite well. They had also brought from their time, many slaves who knew how to use the technology as well. The Black Wolf was one of them.

It was his job to run the simulator, code named Half-Life. You would put a dog into the simulator, to watch him. There was really no point to the simulator, other than to amuse those who watched said dog in it. No one had ever finished it, it had been designed so no one could. When one died, their body would be put into a sleep like trance, where they did not need to eat, drink, nor did they age. Thus they were kept isolated. The only way to free these lost souls was if someone beat it. And since no one had ever beaten it, there were quite a lot of souls.

Occasionally, it would be requested that someone who actually had a chance to beat the simulator be put in it. The next one was Balto, who lived in Nome, Alaska, near the year of 1927. They had learned of him because of the statue of his in the former New York City. He seemed to have good instincts, and seemed smart, so he was chosen to be the next one into Half-Life.

...

I know this is a weird story, but it's something I've had in my head for quite some time, and it's been itching to get out. Review please and tell me if I should continue.

EDIT 10/13/11: I've had a lot of single hits, which means that people are just reading this chapter then deciding this isn't worth their time. If you are one of the people who was going to do this, please at least read one more. Give it a chance.

-Anonymous


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Kodi ran at the head of the mail team, his team mates behind him, and the sled behind them. They were carrying the mail for what would likely be the last time that year. The mail had worked out a deal between the bush plane and the dog team, and a very simple one at that.

During the winter, the dogs would do the carrying, and during the summer Duke and the plane would take the mail. At first the dogs had been a little bit resentful, but since they couldn't pull a sled without snow… there wasn't much they could do.

"My feet hurt!" Ralph complained.

"They always hurt!" Kirby shot back.

"Well I can't help it if someone's going too fast." Ralph said, everyone knowing he meant Kodi.

"If you can't keep up, you shouldn't be on the team." Kodi teased, going a little bit faster just to annoy Ralph.

"Hey! Oh, my feet-" Ralph began again until being told to shut up by Dusty, who'd been silent up until then.

"Thank you." Kodi said.

"My pleasure." Dusty replied.

There was a silence for a while; the only sound was the pitter-patter of the dogs' paws impacting the snow on which they ran. The team was set to make a record run, which was another reason why Kodi had been going so fast.

The musher, Mr. Simpson knew this as well, so he let his dogs run. They'd likely be off until next fall, so it wasn't like they were to be back on the road tomorrow. There would be plenty of time for them to recover from this hard run.

"Finally!" Ralph gasped. The team went over the last hill, and saw their home town, Nome.

Kodi knew his parents would be waiting for him, and he was excited to see them, even though he'd only been away for two days, this day being the third. Kodi cared a lot for his parents, family, and even his team mates, even if they could be annoying at times.

When the team finally pulled in, Ralph collapsed in the snow, exhausted. Mr. Simpson got off the sled, mail bag in hand. He took it up to the post office, where it would then be delivered to the townsfolk. He then returned and unharnessed his dogs, all of whom stayed where they stood, enjoying finally being done.

Kodi saw his father, the famous Balto approaching, but strangely without his mother. Kodi began to feel worried.

"Good job son, I hear you've just made the new record. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks, dad," Kodi replied, slightly embarrassed of being praised in front of his friends.

"Is mom okay?" Kodi inquired, changing the subject.

"Yes she's fine, but Rosy is sick. Don't worry," Balto added quickly, seeing the look of worry cross his son's face," She says it's just a common cold."

"Hey Kodi!" Dusty said, coming up to said dog. "We're going to the old mill, whenever you can join us." Turning to Balto she added," and tell Jenna we hope Rosy gets well soon."

"Will do." Both father and son watched Kodi's friends walk down the road, heading towards the old mill.

"She's a nice girl." Balto commented once they were alone again.

"Yeah she is." Kodi agreed.

"Have you asked her on a date yet?"

"Dad! She's my friend! Nothing more." Once again having to change the subject, Kodi asked if they could go see Jenna, and Balto agreed to that. Besides, Jenna would want to see her son and praise him as well. The two canines got to their paws, and went on their way to Jenna's home.

...

It's been a while since I've seen a Balto movie, and I need to know if I'm keeping the characters in proportion. If I'm not, please tell me (kindly) what I'm doing wrong and I'll do my best to fix it. Review please, so I know that someone is reading this and I'm not just wasting my time.

Also a warning. If I do happen to actually follow through with this story, the Half-Life part WILL BE RATED M! The Half-Life part will not be for a while though, so don't worry, and I'd give several warnings closer to the point where HL would be introduced.

Peace.

-Anonymous


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Kodi and his father arrived at Jenna's house, and the latter let out a howl. It took no more than a few seconds for the beautiful red and white husky to come out of her house. Jenna left, and trotted up to her mate and son.

"Kodiak, congratulations on your new record, your father and I are both very proud. You're a fine lead dog." Jenna said in a warm tone.

"Thank you mom. It helps when you have an amazing father too." Kodi responded, hinting at how his father had saved the children by bringing the vital medicine.

Balto laughed a little," I just did what anyone would do."

"You guided a lost team through a snow storm. That's amazing dad, especially considering-"

Jenna could tell that her mate was becoming uncomfortable at the topic, and decided to interrupt her son.

"Kodi, you must be tired. Why don't you go get some rest?"

Kodi knew there was a reason for his mother wanting him to leave, but he knew better than to push. And he hadn't really thought about it before, but he was feeling a bit tired. Maybe he'd go get a quick nap before going over to the mill.

"Actually I am pretty tired. I'll see you later."

Jenna waited until her son was out of hearing range before speaking again.

"You really should tell him."

"I know, but what if he doubts himself, like Alue did? And now that he's become lead dog… hate to do that to him." Balto replied.

"You can't hide it from him, or for that matter, Dakota and Saba either. You might be able to keep it secret a while, but eventually the truth will come out." Jenna was referring to the three being part wolf. They still did not know, as Balto had never told them.

"Besides, you've told me how your wolf side helped you during the serum run, maybe it would do the same for Kodi."

"Maybe." Balto really didn't see the point in arguing. He knew his mate was right, and everyone else in the town knew they were part wolf too. It was only because Balto had made them promise not to tell that they didn't.

"I'll tell him tomorrow." Balto resolved.

"Good." Jenna replied," Do you want me to tell Dakota and Saba?"

"No, they should hear it from me."

"Okay," noticing the look of worry on Balto's face, Jenna added," don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine."

. . . .

Kodi headed down the main street of Nome, towards the old mill, when he heard the sound of several dogs barking from behind him. Turning around, he saw a team of sled dogs, who'd probably been out training come running through town. The street was unusually empty, so it made Kodi more than a little weary.

The team came to a stop about ten feet away from him, and that was when Kodi got a good look at the lead dog. It was a big black and white malamute, with blue eyes. He was sure he knew who that was. Although he'd never seen Steel personally, he knew that the dog looked quite similar to the one standing before him. He'd learned about Steel from his father's stories when he was a little pup. The dog had tried to kill his father, and when he hadn't succeeded, had sabotaged his father's trail to lead him and the rest of the team off course. It was only because Jenna had set up the northern lights on the hill that the team had made it back alright.

He'd been told that Steel had been banished after that. Which made him all the more dangerous. It was very likely he still had grudges against Balto, and what if he decided to take it out on Kodi? Realizing this, Kodi hurriedly turned around and headed down the street towards the old mill. But a shadow overtook him, and cut Kodi off. It was the malamute.

"Well, what do we have here?"


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I forgot to put this earlier, so here it is. I do not own Balto or Half-Life, they belong to Universal and VALVe, respectively.

Chapter 4

"I… I'm Kodi…" Kodi said at last, trying very hard not to show his fear.

"Pleasure to meet you, Kodi. You might call me Steel." The malamute replied.

This confirmed Kodi's fears. This was the dog his father had talked about, and his only hope at that point was that Steel did not know who he was. Steels next sentence proved that theory wrong, however.

Steel could sense the smaller red dogs fear. He also knew that this was Balto's son; he could smell the wolf dog on Kodi, and in him.

"You've probably been told about me by your father. And before you ask how I knew, it was because I could smell him on you."

Kodi was completely terrified by now, as the rest of the dog sled team were surrounding him. He'd never been one for fighting, he barely even knew how to fight.

"What should we do with that mutt dogs son, boys?" Steel taunted.

There were several cries of kill him, beat him, break his legs, and things of that sort. Despite this, Steel calling his father a mutt angered him, and, not knowing where he was getting courage from, Kodi growled back," Don't call him that."

"Why ever not?" Steel continued," That's what he is!"

"That is a lie! My father was right about you, you're nothing but a liar, glory hog, and a coward!"

Instead of infuriating Steel though, it only amused him.

"Oh, did he not tell you that YOU'RE a mutt too?" Steel teased again, hoping to further infuriate Kodi. But he got quite the opposite reaction. He wondered why, but then he realized. Balto hadn't told Kodi that he was a mutt as well.

"He hasn't told you? That just goes to show how truthful your father really is. I wonder what else he's lying to you about." Steel turned away from the confused and angry Kodi, and told his team to leave the kid alone. Steel had wanted revenge on Balto, but he'd never thought it'd be this easy. He walked away from Kodi, a plan already forming in his mind.

Kodi, however, was angry. Why had his father not told him this? What else was he lying about? Kodi knew he was thinking irrationally, but he couldn't help himself.

_My parents lied to me. _Kodi thought, _why? Do my siblings know? Do my friends know? What if I'm kicked off the team? _These were the types of thoughts going through the poor dogs head. And now he knew that was why Alue had left as well. Balto had said that she'd run off because she was upset, which was true, but his reason wasn't. His father had said Alue had run off because she was sad she hadn't been adopted, and that was it. Kodi supposed that could be true, but that probably wasn't it. She'd probably figured out she was part wolf, and been angry like he was now.

_How have I not seen it though, I mean it's so obvious now I feel like a complete moron. _Kodi took a glance at the sun, and saw it was already setting. Even though he'd had a nap, he suddenly felt tired again. He decided against going to the mill with his friends, he just wasn't in the mood. He decided he'd go talk to his father in the morning, but for the moment, he went back to the boiler room where he curled up in his dog bed and did his best to forget what he'd just learned.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Kodi lay on his makeshift bed, which was nothing more than a pillow, his head resting on his paws. The boiler room was pretty peaceful, the only disturbance was someone occasionally coming in to make sure said boiler remained stoked. He could hear his friends outside, and groaned inwardly. He really wasn't in the mood.

Dusty pushed open the door, and came in, followed by Ralph and Kirby. Their eyes scanned the room, until they saw their lead dog curled up on his bed, in the far corner of the room.

"Kodi, where were you?" Kirby asked.

"Please, leave me alone." Kodi said softly, knowing they wouldn't. The four of them had been friends for nearly two years, since they'd been about ten weeks old. They were almost like a second family to Kodi, and right now, were the only family to him.

"What's wrong?" Dusty asked gently, laying down on the hard concrete floor next to Kodi's bed.

"Yeah what's up?" Ralph echoed.

"We're here for you." Kirby added.

"Just leave me, please." Kodi requested once again.

"We want to-"

"Damn it Dusty! What don't you get about LEAVE ME ALONE? Do you have a hearing problem or something?" Standing up, Kodi continued, "You're all so stupid! I asked you nicely to leave me be, but no… someone had to keep on pushing." He said glaring at Dusty, "What a pithy excuse for a friend." With that, the canine exited the room, kicking the door shut behind him, and leaving three astonished friends.

. . . .

He knew he'd treated his friends unfairly. Kodi felt bad about yelling at them, but they could've been keeping secrets from him too, who knew how many dogs in the town knew and never bothered to tell him. Something like being part wolf, Kodi felt one deserved to know. He hated his father, and for that matter, his mother as well. She'd had just as big of part in it.

Kodi figured he'd apologize to his friends in the morning, but right now he needed somewhere he could be alone and cool down. He walked down the street, the only light coming from the full moon above him. He finally saw the dark alley, and proceeded to turn down it. He found a ventilation duct on the side of the local hotel, and pushed it open and crawled in. No one would know that he was there, right beneath the sleeping guests' feet. Kodi laid his head down on his paws, and before he knew it, he was asleep.

. . . .

Something crashed to the ground above him, and Kodi sat upright, his head slamming into the floor boards of the hotel, startling the guest above just as much as the guest had startled him.

"My head…" Kodi groaned, and rubbed it with his right paw. After a minute it began to dull, but it left him with one bad headache. Kodi stretched out his muscles, which were sore after yesterday's long run. _Wow, was that only yesterday? _Kodi thought, so much had happened since then. Growing angry, Kodi crawled out of his makeshift den, and placed the vent cover back over the hole. It was morning out, and people seemed to be going about their regular business. Judging from the sun, Kodi guessed it was about ten o'clock. He stretched again, before heading out on the street himself.

No one really paid much attention to the angry wolf-dog, but that would soon change. As coming down the street from the opposite direction, was none other than Balto. Jenna was right behind him. _Perfect. Could this get any better? _

"Kodi, come…" Balto trailed off when he saw the look of anger on his sons face.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kodi growled.

"Kodiak, lower your voice!" Jenna barked at him.

"Don't you dare tell me what to do! Why didn't you tell me I was part wolf? Don't you think I deserved to know? What about Dakota and Saba? They deserve to know too!" By now, some dogs and humans alike were stopping to watch the confrontation between the two parents and their son. One of these spectators was none other than Steel.

"Kodi, if you'd just give me a chance to explain-"Balto began, but was interrupted by an even angrier Kodi.

"YOU'VE HAD TWO DAMN YEARS TO EXPLAIN! How much more haven't you told me? And that was a lie about Alue too wasn't it? She left because she was mad at you. I hate you. Both of you."

"Kodi, please listen." Balto said, his voice indicating that Kodi had better listen, so he did, "I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to go through what I went through… I wanted to protect you."

"I can understand that for when I'm a pup, but I'm grown up now! You didn't think I deserved to know, especially about being a… a mutt? I deserved to know!"

"He's right, you know."

Balto looked to his left to see none other than Steel approaching.

"Steel," he growled, "I thought I'd heard you were back."

Steel padded up to Kodi before saying anything else. Kodi turned to said dog and spoke.

"Thanks for telling me. It's pretty sad when you have to rely on a stranger, especially one that's _dangerous," _Kodi said, mocking his dad," To get information about your heritage."

Balto and Jenna alike glowered at Steel, who smirked triumphantly. He bent in close to Balto.  
>"This is just the beginning." He whispered so only Balto could hear it. Turning to Kodi he spoke more loudly.<p>

"Let's go, you're parents aren't worth our time."

With one last lingering look at his parents, both sadness and anger showing in his eyes, Kodi turned to follow Steel.

"What do we do now?" Jenna wondered. "We've just lost our son."

"No.. give him time, Jen, he'll get over it. I hope so, anyways."

Jenna just sighed. "I hope so too. We've got to get him away from Steel too, but I suppose we should tell Dakota and Saba before Kodi does."

Balto nodded. "Yes, we should."

The mates then went to find their remaining two pups, praying to whatever spirits were up there that they would take it better than Kodi did.

...

As I sit here listening to my music, I can't help but wondering what I've got myself into. Why am I even writing this? It's going to take a while, if I even ever finish it. Anyways, review please, as always.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Kodi was angry. But that didn't mean he was stupid. Sure, he'd done some not-so-smart things in the past day, and said things that he'd end up regretting, but he was still smart. He did not trust Steel. Sure, the dog had told him something that even his father wouldn't, but he hadn't done it out of compassion. This was why Kodi refused to follow Steel. He had instead turned down one of Nome's many alleys, and slipped quietly out of town.

Most of the snow was melted, the only remaining snow being up high in the mountains. The mid-morning sun shone down, barely a cloud in the sky. Kodi walked through the new growing grass, barely making a sound. He had no clue where he was going, and frankly he didn't really care, so long as it was away from Nome. Kodi regretted how he'd spoken to his friends, in particular, Dusty, the night before. None of them deserved that. But his parents were a different story.

Kodi knew deep in his mind that what he'd said to them was wrong too, but he did not want to admit that. He also knew that he sounded like a broken record, his reason of 'didn't I deserve to know?' still floating around in his mind. There was one thing that his mother had said, though, when he and his siblings were still no more than a few weeks old. She'd said that you're not in control of your feelings, but you can control how you express them. Kodi knew he'd expressed his feelings in a not-so-good way, but again, the broken record kept saying they deserved it.

Kodi had been so lost in thought that he hadn't even noticed he'd crossed into a wolf packs territory, and wouldn't have ever known if he hadn't nearly walked right into one of the wolves. Said wolf spun around in surprise. It was a fairly large grey wolf, who had green eyes.

"What's a dog like you doing out here?" the wolf accused, "trying to steal our prey?"

"No… I didn't even know I crossed your border. I'm sorry, I'll just leave."

"It's too late for that."

Kodi didn't know when he'd entered a forest, but he only then noticed the trees. Between several of the trees moved the lean figures of at least five or six more wolves, who began slowly surrounding Kodi. He looked around frantically for a way to escape. Although he'd never had to fight, Kodi was pretty confident he could take one, or maybe even two wolves. But six? There was just no way.

Brown eyes scanned the brush, until he saw an opening. It was beside the original grey wolf. Not giving away what he was going to do, Kodi stood still, acting like he was accepting what was coming. Then, he launched himself forward, and at the wolf. His shoulder hit the wolf's nose. It wasn't painful, but it was enough to buy him a few seconds. Kodi took off running, knowing all too well that he was running away from the town, not towards it. He heard the yips and yowls of the wolves behind them. This was where Kodi was grateful to have his sled dog experience. Any ordinary dog wouldn't be able to out run wolves. But he wasn't an ordinary dog. Despite hating his father at the moment, Kodi silently thanked him for passing on his ability to run. He could tell he was pulling away from the wolves, but that all changed in a moment.

Out of no-where, a black wolf came soaring in from Kodi's right. He easily bowled Kodi over, and rolled said dog onto his back. Nothing else coming to mind, Kodi used a rather dirty move, and kicked the wolf in a very sensitive area, multiple times. The wolf collapsed on him. Kodi heard the other wolves coming in, and an idea formed in his head. It was something that he knew he'd regret later, but right now is was somewhat necessary. Kodi sunk his teeth into the wolf's leg, and with one mighty jerk of his neck, swung the wolf around so that all of his approaching pack mates tripped over him. Kodi took off again, this time heading back towards Nome. The wolves let him go, deciding he wasn't worth their time. That didn't stop Kodi from running though, and he kept up his pace until he reached Nome.

Kodi collapsed just outside of town, right in a field of pink flowers. He was panting so hard, and his muscles felt like they were on fire. After being pushed to the brink yesterday, then today, Kodi vowed that he'd sleep all of the next day away. Suddenly feeling thirsty, Kodi heaved himself to his feet, and, feeling like he was nine years old, went into town to find something to drink. He found it in the form of a water bucket on the boiler room floor, which was thankfully completely refilled.

Kodi was thankful his friends (though he doubted if they still considered him a friend) weren't in the room. He was so tired, he'd have probably yelled at them again. So, instead of waiting around, Kodi went back and found the same vent under the hotel that he'd stayed in the previous night, and crawled in, and let himself fall into a much needed sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Balto and Jenna had told their other two offspring, Dakota and Saba, about the part wolf thing. They had taken it exceptionally well. They'd been understandably angry at first, but they hadn't taken their anger as far as Kodi had. But that was probably because Steel hadn't been the one to tell them. When the two of them had heard about what Kodi had said, they'd agreed to help find their brother, and to try to calm him down.

So far, they'd had no luck. The last anyone had seen of Kodi was walking away with Steel, which worried Balto. When he'd asked said dog about his son, Steel had replied "Your worthless mutt son just turned around and walked away." Maybe he was starting to get over it? Balto hoped so.

Despite what their son had said, Balto and Jenna still loved their son a lot. How could they not? He was their flesh and blood. Balto glanced up at the sky. It was getting late, some stars were already beginning to come out, the sun having already gone down.

"There's no sign of him." Dakota said, returning to Jenna's house, which was what you'd call the families check in point.

"We found a trail going out of town, but we lost it in the fields. My guess is that he's staying outside of town somewhere so he can cool off." Saba added.

"Will he be okay?" Jenna asked, concerned, "I mean, there's wolves out there…"

Balto glanced at Jenna with a look that said, excuse me?

"Sorry, I didn't mean you… but still, he could be in danger."

"Nah, Kodi may be angry, but he's not dumb. He's got his instincts. He'll be fine." Balto assured his mate.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"So, are we going to meet here in the morning, then maybe continue searching?" Dakota asked.

"Yes. Meet here at say… eight o'clock?" Jenna suggested.

All present agreed, and shortly after, left to go to their houses so they could get some rest. Jenna let Balto stay with her, as it would no doubt cheer the still sick Rosy up to see her favorite dog besides Jenna.

. . . .

Kodi had slept through nearly all of the night, until the smell of something cooking in the hotel kitchen above had drifted past his nose. He'd then sat up, whereupon he hit his head in the same place he had yesterday morning.

"Ugh."

He repeated his same rubbing of his head, then stretched himself out. What smelled like bacon above hit his nose again, and his mouth began to water. It'd been a while since he'd last eaten, and Kodi was quite hungry. Kodi crawled along underneath the floor boards, until he came to the grate that was connected to the kitchen.

On the stove, there was a pan of sizzling bacon. Kodi also saw a large piece of ham, that had yet to be cooked. He pushed up on the grate with his nose, and to his surprise, it moved. Looking around, Kodi didn't see anyone currently in the kitchen. So he gently pushed the grate up, and crawled out of the hole.

The ham was on top of a counter, but it wasn't that high. Standing on his back legs, Kodi was easily able to grab it and put it back down the hole. He then crawled back in, and, using his nose, put the grate back to how it had been.

No sooner did it slide into place then the door to the kitchen open, revealing a cook clad in his customary white hat thing and apron. He also had a very mean looking knife.

"What? WHERE IN THE BLAZES DID MY HAM GO?"

Resisting the urge to laugh, Kodi quietly then crawled back around to his small den area. It was just big enough to accommodate him, and maybe one other dog. Kodi ate his prized ham, leaving some for later. Deciding it was time to get out of the confined space, Kodi crawled around until he reached the exit, and stepped out into the cool morning air.

Kodi wanted to go for a walk, but he didn't really want to be disturbed. He looked up and down the alley, until he spotted what he was looking for.

At the far end of the alley, where it dead ended, there were several boxes stacked up just high enough so that someone could climb them and reach the rooftops. That someone was Kodi. He climbed up, and walked along the roofs unnoticed. He could see his father down below, along with his mother and two siblings.

_Did he finally tell them? Well, he's got more courage than I thought. _

Deciding he'd had enough of the roof tops, Kodi headed back to the stack of boxes, and climbed back down them. He then walked the length of the alley until he came to the street. Looking both left and right to make sure that none of his family members were in sight, stepped out of the alley, and nigh on ran head first into Steel.

"Oh, look who it is, just the dog I wanted to see. Kodi, why don't you come with me?"

"No, sorry. Just because you told me I was part wolf doesn't mean I automatically trust you."

"So you still trust that mutt Balto then?"  
>"No. I hate him, and my mom too for that matter. But I've heard the stories they've told about you."<br>"Stories, yes, but every story has two sides, doesn't it? How do you know, or how do I know that his story is truthful? Everyone believes him because he was the one to come back with the medicine. No one ever bothered to listen to my story."

This was a lie, just like the story Steel had told about Balto two years ago. However, Kodi seemed to be thinking about what he'd just said, and nodded.

"I suppose you're right, every story has two sides. I guess it wouldn't hurt to listen to yours."

"I knew you'd come around. Let us take a walk, Kodi…"

...

I'm not going to change that much, I'm just going to edit some parts to make it more realistic.

Not much to else to say, other than Notre Dame better beat the $h!t out of USC today.

Have a good weekend-

-Anonymous


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Steel had led Kodi to the old mill, as no one else was at it. He'd then told Kodi his story, which was the same one, with a few changes, such as leaving out carrying the dogs on his back part, he'd told the night of Balto's return with the medicine.

"My mom told me that story, she said it was the one you said." Kodi observed when Steel finished.

"What?" Steel asked, not understanding what Kodi had just said.

"My mom said that's the story you told everyone." Kodi repeated.

"So your mom said this is the story I said?"

"Yes." Kodi confirmed," And she also said it was a lie."

"How do you know what they've told you is true? It's from their point of view. As I said, everyone believes Balto because he was the one to return with the medicine. And we all know your parents have been very truthful."

"They have."

Both Steel and Kodi looked around to the door, and saw Kaltag, followed by Nikki and Star entering the building. Kodi knew them, they were his dad's friends, and he'd often played with the dogs who'd sort of become his uncles.

"We was there too, in case youze forgot, Steel." Nikki added.

Kaltag continued, "I know you may hate your parents right now, Kodi, but do not listen to him. What your parents told you about that night was true. We know, we were there."

Kodi got up and joined the three older dogs, and together they blocked the door to the building, trapping Steel inside. Steel wasn't the least bit worried, however.

"You guys finally are brave enough to stand up to me, _that's _an accomplishment, considering you used to be on my side." Steel said.

"Until we realized who you really were. You didn't care about those kids, Steel, and you don't care about him." Kaltag retorted, pointing at Kodi, "You just want to use him, to get revenge on Balto."  
>"That aint gonna happen." Nikki added.<p>

"Yes, you stay away from my father, he's mine." Kodi put in as well, "Now get lost."

The four dogs faced Steel. Steel was an excellent fighter, but he didn't fancy his chances against four dogs, especially during the day. If someone heard them fighting, it'd be all over for him. Nikki stepped aside to allow Steel to pass by.

"You're not going to get rid of me this easily. I will be back." Steel said, before heading off towards town.

"That was a good job, Kodi." Kaltag said once Steel was out of sight. Kodi turned so he could face all three of the dogs he'd once called his friends.

"I meant it." Kodi said angrily.

"What?" Nikki asked, confused.

"I know what you guys are trying to do. You're trying to get me to forgive my dad. I won't, and I'm not going to let you try to persuade me. You're on his side. I meant that I want Steel to stay away from my dad. He's all mine. And if anyone, including you gets in my way, I may just have to kill you."

Kodi left it at that, and walked out of the old mill himself, brushing past his three former 'uncles'. He walked in the opposite direction of town, towards the forest. The three remaining dogs just watched until Kodi was nothing more than a red spec in a field of grass, the dark outline of the forest beyond that.

"That kid is seriously messed up." Star spoke up for the first time.

"I feel bad for him." Nikki said.

"Can you blame him though? He thinks his parents kept this from him on purpose, which they did. I told Balto when they were born that he should tell them."

"But still, wanting to kill your own dad? I think he actually is serious. If that's the case, we'd better tell Balto to watch his back."

"Yeah… we should."

That decided, the group of three went to find Balto, to warn him about his son.

. . . .

Kodi had been about to go into the forest, but remembering his encounter with the wolves yesterday, he thought that he better not. He was so angry at the moment he felt he could kill all of them though.

His father was getting other dogs to do his dirty work. This made Kodi mad. If Balto wanted to talk to his son, he should do it personally, not send other dogs for him. Kodi vowed that he'd hurt his dad, maybe even kill him. He knew that it wasn't worth it, that it wasn't right, but the other side of his mind kept telling him that Balto deserved it for lying.

Before he did anything else though, Kodi decided that he'd go apologize to his team mates. So, when it'd grown dark, he'd come back into town, and walked quietly to the boiler room, where he knew his friends would be. As he approached the door, he could hear them talking quietly, and grew nervous. He didn't know how to even start.

_Just tell them how you feel, Kodi. _So he pushed open the door, and immediately all three of his friends went quiet.

"Kodi?" Kirby said after a while.

"Yeah… listen… I'm sorry about how I… you know, spoke to you guys the other day. You didn't deserve that. So I hope you can forgive me, and maybe we can go back to being friends?"

"We forgive you Kodi, we heard about your reaction to being part wolf and all, and we're sorry." Dusty said. Not one of them, Kirby, Ralph, or Dusty blamed Kodi for what he'd said after they'd found out about Steels telling Kodi about his heritage. They supposed he could've taken it in a better way, but it was already done with. They'd also heard about how he'd spoken to Balto.

"Yeah, we would've told you, but we thought you knew." Kirby added.

"Wait… you guys knew I was part wolf?" Kodi asked.

"Everyone did, we just didn't say anything because Balto made us promise not to."

This infuriated Kodi again. Everyone in town knew, yet his parents still kept it from him? _Now I can't wait to hurt them._

"Kodi, you should talk to your parents-" Dusty suggested, but was quickly interrupted by an even more angry Kodi.

"You too? I thought I could trust you guys! But it seems every one of my friends is trying to make me talk to my parents! I don't want to talk to them, I want to kill them!" Kodi's three friends looked on in shock.

"Kodi, you don't know what you're saying-" Dusty started, but was interrupted again.

"I know perfectly well what I'm saying! They deserve it!"

"They didn't tell you to protect you! Your dad didn't want you to go through what he did when he was young!"

"Well we see how well that worked out don't we." Kodi said coldly. "I'm going to make my parents pay. Please do not try to stop me; I don't want to hurt any of you."  
>Kodi began to leave, but he couldn't, because Dusty ran in front of him, blocking the door.<p>

"Kodi, please, if you just talk to them!"

"Move." Kodi said, his voice suddenly turning quite cold.

"Just talk to them!"

"I SAID MOVE!" Kodi lashed out with his right paw, hitting Dusty on the left cheek, his claws making three large scratches. The force of his blow was enough to send her sprawling to the ground. By the time Kodi realized what he was doing, it was done. Ralph and Kirby looked on, horrified. Before they could move to stop Kodi, however, he was gone.

...

I had an idea last night listening to the thunder storm. I think I will change this story a lot. I'm gonna try to put a new perspective on Steel, and I think it is good, but that won't be for me to decide. I hope you'll like it.

Also expect another chapter later this day depending on where you live. As it is here, it's only 4:30 PM and I just got off of school.

Later.

-Anonymous


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Balto, Jenna, Nikki, Kaltag, and Star all sat in a circle inside of Jenna's shed. There was only barely enough room for them. Nikki had just finished telling the two parents about their son.

"I can't believe it." Balto said, astounded.

"It's true, he wants to hurt you, or kill you." Kaltag replied grimly.

"It's Steel," Jenna growled, "He's telling Kodi stuff that isn't true."

"Kodi doesn't trust him either." Kaltag retorted.

Jenna took a breath to reply, but the door to her shed suddenly burst open, revealing Ralph, Kirby, and Dusty.

"We just saw Kodi." Kirby stated.

"And he did this." Ralph added.

Dusty turned her head, and on her left side, there were three claw marks. They were large, but thankfully not very deep. Her whole left cheek was messy with blood though.

"Kodi did this?" Jenna whispered. "But why?"

"When I suggested he talk to you, he said something about not trusting us, and that we were trying to help you."  
>"He said the same to us." Star put in.<p>

Dusty continued, "Anyways, when he went to leave, I tried to stop him. He asked me to move, but I said again that he should talk to you. As you can see, that wasn't very smart of me."

"Where is he now?" Balto asked.

"We don't know." Kirby answered. "He ran off before we could even move."

"Damn." Balto growled.

"What are you going to do?" Jenna asked worriedly.

"I'd chain him down if that's what it takes." Balto answered.

"He deserves more than that!" Kirby exclaimed, "He should be punished severely! You know the law as well as I do, Balto."

The law Kirby was referring to wasn't really a law, just more of something of an unspoken code that all of the dogs in town knew of. One of the rules was that no male should ever harm a female, unless it was absolutely necessary. Such as if a female was legitimately trying to kill a male.

If you harmed a female, you'd be taken to the old mill and be put on trial, an old Saint Bernard named Doc acted as the town judge. Depending on how bad you hurt said female, was how bad your punishment was.

"No!" Jenna exclaimed, "My son needs help! Not torture!"

"Sometimes force is the only way to teach someone." Kaltag said coldly.

"I agree." Kirby stated.

"No…" Jenna cried, and buried her face in Balto's shoulder. He rested his head on top of hers in an attempt to comfort his mate.

"We'll find Kodi, and we'll help him, Jen. I promise."

. . . .

Two weeks passed by without a sign of Kodi. Most didn't care though, other than Balto and Jenna. They thought that what he'd done deserved a punishment as well, and thought it better for his sake if he stayed away. Dogs were on constant alert, though, in case Kodi did decide he wanted to come waltzing back into town. If he did, he'd probably be jumped on and then dragged to the old mill, where the dogs would then 'teach him a lesson'.

Kodi had found himself a small, abandoned den in the forest, where he'd subsided for the past two weeks. It couldn't be more than a mile from town, but with summer being nigh on upon the Alaskan wilderness, nearly every plant in the forest was blooming with life. Kodi's den was in a large thicket of red flowers, almost impossible to find unless you fell into it, which was exactly what Kodi had done. With several large trees surrounding him as well, Kodi felt relatively safe.

The one problem Kodi had though was food. There was prey all around him. Rabbits and other small mammals, as well as deer and larger things. And this was good, except Kodi wasn't a very good hunter. He'd tried, but all of the darned things sensed him coming. He'd only eaten 6 times in 14 days, so most likely he'd be going into town sometime soon to try and find himself something a little easier to catch.

But that wasn't his main problem. His actions were. Only by hitting Dusty, had he realized how stupid and idiotic it'd been to get mad. Sure he had a right to be angry at his dad, but if he would've just talked instead of shutting his family out, he wouldn't be here right now.

As it were, Kodi was sure that he was hated, or at least distrusted by the dogs of Nome. And he was also worried about Steel. The dog probably wanted revenge on his dad still, and he could use this situation to his advantage. Kodi needed to stop him before something bad happened. Even if his life was messed up, he would make sure he took Steel down with him.

Kodi decided he needed food, so he took a walk towards town, on his way to get something in his stomach, and maybe learn a little more about what Steel did or didn't have planned.

...

Well, here's the beginning of the change. And I just realized. I have no real ending I'm working towards right now, so I'm pretty much making this up as I go along. Expect the updates to take a little longer, though I will try my very hard to keep on a good schedule.

-Thanks for the reviews as well, and I'd appreciate some new ones. Peace.

Anonymous


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Balto wasn't sure what to do about his son, Kodi. He'd hurt a female. Balto wanted to help him, had tried to help, but Kodi wouldn't let him. Now he'd gone and done that. What was the matter with him? He- Balto stopped. He thought he'd just heard something. It sounded like… there it was again. Someone was calling for help, but the voice was barely above a whisper. He looked to his right, and saw that he was beside the hotel. The small passage way between that and the post office was where the hotel left its trash. It was a very good place to look for food, if you could stand the smell, since humans often wasted a lot.

He turned down it, the wretched scent of the garbage almost making him turn back. But he was so sure that he'd heard something… that was when he saw it. Or her. It was Dusty, lying on her side. Balto could smell the scent of blood, even over the trash.

He rushed up to the injured dog.

"Dusty? Dusty! Can you hear me?" It was a stupid question, as the grievous wounds she had would've been enough to kill any ordinary dog. Yet she was somehow still breathing. Her grey fur was almost soaked in blood. Balto had to help. So he managed to sling the injured Dusty across his back, and carried her towards the doctors office. It was late, the sun almost set, and only an eerie red glow from said sun was shining on him at the moment.

Balto scratched the wooden door and whined softly. He was thankful the doctor often stayed late to do whatever it was he did. He opened the door irritably.

"What do you…" he trailed of when he saw Dusty lying limp over Balto's back. He hurriedly picked her up off of him and brought her inside. Balto followed him in.

The doctor brought Dusty to a silver metal table and placed her up on it. She didn't even move or anything. The doctor rushed around gathering up his things, and, rather than stay and get in the way, Balto figured he'd go tell what happened, so maybe they could find whoever did this and make sure they paid.

Balto had a sinking feeling that his son might be behind this attack. As much as he hoped it wasn't, he couldn't shake the possibility from his head, especially since Kodi had hurt her once. Although that hadn't been as bad, perhaps the only reason he hadn't hurt her more was because Kirby and Ralph had also been present.

Balto didn't know what he'd do if he figured out Kodi was behind this. He knew dogs would want to hurt his son… would he let them? Or would he protect Kodi? Balto didn't know. There was no evidence against his son, however. The fact that Dusty had been attacked where she had been, likely meant that any scent of the attacker would've been covered up, a smart move.

Balto knew Kodi was smart, but someone else was too. Steels recent return had put Balto on edge, especially after what he'd told Kodi. He had a feeling Steel was here for more than just a visit, so it could've very well been him trying to get Kodi in trouble. Balto shook his head, and went off to the boiler room, figuring that he ought to tell Dusty's team first. He was thankful said room was right behind the doctor's office, it was there to keep the office warm in the winter. As he padded around the back, he pondered how he'd tell them this.

Instead of doing so, he just entered, and the two dogs attention was immediately on him.

"Someone attacked Dusty."

"What?" Kirby and Ralph exclaimed simultaneously.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but she was hurt pretty bad. She is in the doctor's office right now, you can go see her if you want. I'll go tell everyone."  
>"Yeah sure thing," Kirby said, already walking out, "thanks Balto."<p>

Dusty's two team-mates went around to see how she was doing, and the doctor kindly let them in, knowing that the dogs of this town seemed to just somehow know when something was wrong with another. They were almost like people. He let the two watch as he fixed Dusty up. It took him a while, as he had to clean every wound with peroxide, and then he sewed her up as best he could, and applied proper bandages. She was very lucky Balto had found her when she did, as any longer and she probably would've bled to death. Her wounds weren't that deep, but there were so many that it more than made up for it.

The doctor finished up, and gently picked up Dusty, and brought her around to the boiler room, placing her on one of the pillows there. Kirby and Ralph sat down beside her, and the doctor figured that if anything went wrong with Dusty they would come get him. So he left to go clean up his office and finish organizing his new medicine and equipment.

. . . .

Kodi had seen Dusty. He'd seen how his dad had taken her to the doctors. To him, it was pretty obvious Steel had done that. Kodi had been right, the dog had something planned. But would the town dogs think the same way? They knew that he had attacked Dusty before, so he could do it again. He was currently listening in on some of the dogs talk at the old mill. An emergency meeting had been called. Kodi sat up on the roof of the old building, praying that he wouldn't be spotted.

So far it seemed as if his theory was correct. All of the dogs suspected him, and that was justified, but many also wanted to hurt him, to put it lightly. His father had raised a point that it could've very well been Steel, since no actual scent had ever been found.

"I agree, it could've been Steel," Kaltag said, "but we won't know for sure until Dusty wakes up. Hopefully she can tell us what happened. I say we all go get some rest, and then we'll figure this thing out tomorrow."

Mumbled agreements came from many, and Kodi blew out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. It meant he was safe, for now. The dogs would probably hunt him, and catch him, at very least, to bring back here.

Kodi debated what he would do. Should he let himself be taken? But if he did, would he be punished for something he didn't do? Kodi knew he deserved punishment for hurting Dusty the one time, but this had not been him. So, he figured he should stay out of the way, for the moment.

Just when he thought he was in the clear, though, a howl went up from below him.

"Kodi's above us!" someone cried.

"Get him, don't let him get away!"

Kodi leapt off the roof, and landed awkwardly very nearly twisting his foot. He regained his balance and shot off toward the woods. No one was chasing him, but he did not know that.

The chase had been called off before it had even begun. The dogs needed rest, and, even though many wanted to give chase, they knew they should rest, then follow his trail in the morning.

Steel watched from a nearby rooftop. He had been the one to attack Dusty. But he hadn't done it willingly. He had a plan, that if revealed would get him in big trouble, and with more than just the dogs of Nome. So far it was working well, he only hoped it stayed that way. Hundreds of lives depended on it.

...

I've suddenly found myself lacking the motivation to write this. I don't know why, but I just don't have it at the moment. I have a nice four day weekend off from school, so there may be another chapter here by Saturday or even tomorrow, just don't count on it. In case I don't put a new chapter on, have a good halloween.

-Anonymous


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Kodi's trail was relatively easy for the dogs to follow. Only his family and former friends were searching for him, which made seven total. The reason no one else had been allowed to go was because Balto was afraid that someone might attack or hurt his son. Balto didn't want his son hurt, not until they knew for sure if he was responsible for the attack. He'd managed to convince the town dogs that Steel was suspect, and thus Kodi should not be harmed, until he'd been questioned.

Judging from his trail, Kodi didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular, more like he was just running randomly. The direction he was going, though, which was roughly north-west, was heading towards the high mountains of Alaska. If he got into them, the chances of finding Kodi would greatly decrease. Perhaps Kodi had known this, and was heading there on purpose?

"Do you think he's heading for the mountains?" Kaltag asked, almost as if reading Balto's mind.

"I don't know, but it seems like it." Balto answered.

It was just a little after noon, meaning that the dogs had been following Kodi for nearly four hours. At what point did they give up and go home? They couldn't risk getting lost in the Alaskan wilderness, as they might never find the way back home. If worst came to worst, however, at least they had each other.

Balto decided to voice his thought.

"At what point to we turn around? We can't risk getting lost."

"We don't." Kirby growled in reply, "We came out here to find Kodi, and that's what we're going to do. He needs to pay."

Kodi's friends were angry. How could he be so stupid? And so heartless as to attack a female? That was just bad. Kirby and Ralph were ready to tear their former friend up, but held themselves back only because of Balto. He'd asked they don't do anything to Kodi until they knew if it was him that had indeed attacked Dusty. The two had agreed. Balto was a respected and respectful canine, his word often carefully considered and one of the most valuable in Nome.

"Just make sure he doesn't pay for a debt he might not owe." Balto said back.

Kirby nodded.

Jenna, however, was worried sick about her son. Almost every dog in the town wanted a piece of him, and Jenna honestly couldn't blame them. It was only natural to want to protect your pup, though. Jenna had no idea what she'd do if Kodi was found guilty of that horrible crime. She supposed they'd deal with that when it came. Right now the main thing was to find Kodi.

"We're catching up."

That was true; Kodi's scent trail was already a lot fresher, like it'd recently been marked.

The mountains that loomed over head were quite ominous though. It was going to be close if they caught Kodi before he got into the mountains, or if they didn't. Everyone knew this, and sped up. They had to find him, and fast.

. . . .

Kodi had no idea where he was going. He was just running. He knew that he was being followed, and by a lot of dogs, and had just decided to run. Kodi would try to find somewhere that no one knew him and no one would ever find him and make a new life. Kodi had only then noticed the mountains towering over him.

It would be harder for his pursuers to find him there, so Kodi went on. He walked through the rocky terrain, his paws crunching on the snow that still fell way up here.

The path he was on was taking him steadily upward, and Kodi knew that, most likely, he'd reach a dead end. Yet he kept going, it was almost as if something was calling him. After a few minutes, Kodi did indeed reach an end. He walked cautiously right to the very edge.

Now that was a long way down. Below him, he could see grassy fields growing in between the large grey mountains, and a sparkling river that snaked its way through the fields. It was very beautiful. Too bad he was being hunted, because Kodi would've liked nothing more than to just sit and stare at the scenery.

He noticed something just below him, though. It was a small ledge, about ten feet down. Kodi knew that if he sat here, he'd be caught. So he jumped, and only barely landed on said edge. It led into a cave, and about fifteen feet to his left, Kodi could see another path that led back down the mountain. He assumed this cave would take him to that ledge, so he walked into the dark cavern, his paw steps echoing through the tunnels, indicating that they were much larger than he previously thought.

Kodi could barely see, so he went on his other senses. The path curved left, so Kodi assumed he'd been right about that at least. And indeed he was. In front of him were two more paths. The left one showing the bright day light, but the right showing an eerie orange glow. His curiosity getting the better of him, Kodi took the right path.

It turned on a sharp 90 degree angle, and into a room. What Kodi saw in said room astounded him. So much so that if there'd been a person with a gun, heck ten people, he still wouldn't even have been able to run.

On the left of the room, were two tall cylinders that looked to be made completely of glass, except for their base, which was made out of a strange blue metal. They had a weird orange liquid inside, which was what had been emitting the glow. There were also three blue ropes going across the rock floor, leading to something on the right of the room. It looked like a large box, made out of the same blue metal. There were some weird glowing things on it, which emitted a small white light.

Finally regaining his composure Kodi slowly entered in the room. At the far end, he could see another cave, leading to who knew what.

_What is this stuff, and how did it get here? _Kodi wondered. _I've never seen anything like it… this is just, amazing._

To the left on the other side of the box was a large piece of glass, which looked like a picture frame except without a picture. Kodi saw some more of the weird blue ropes attached to that as well.

Kodi was so baffled by what he saw, he did not notice the small paper thin wire that ran across the room until he walked right into it, breaking it off the wall on one side of the room. A loud, deafening noise assaulted Kodi's ears, and he shook his head, trying to get it out. Having no concept of what an alarm was, Kodi was understandably confused.

He turned to run out of the room, when he saw the figure of Steel blocking his escape.

...

Well it seems I've regained a little bit of my will to write this! This chapter marks the beginning of the Half-Life cross, so the story will be moving soon, probably after a couple more chapters, into the cross section of the site. The next chapters will also take a lot longer to write out, so updates are most likely to be a lot slower. And one more question, even though I'm sure I know the answer. How many have actually played Half-Life or know what it is? I hope so, otherwise my job is going to be even more difficult.

Happy halloween, and don't eat to much candy!

-Anonymous


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

(A/N: Here's where stuff gets strange. Hope you're ready)

Steel took a couple of steps towards Kodi. He was just as confused as Kodi was. Kodi wasn't supposed to be here, so how had he gotten here?

"How'd you get in here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" Kodi responded.

Steel, who was getting annoyed by the darn alarm that the box was emitting, walked over to it and put a paw on one of the glowing things. Kodi watched in wonder as he pressed a combination of them, and then the blaring noise that had so violently assaulted his ears stopped.

"How'd you…" Kodi fumbled for what to say.

"I'm not from this time." Steel said simply.

"What?"

"I'm not from this time. I'm a time traveler."

"How is that even possible? And the even weirder thing is, why do I think you're telling the truth?"

"It is true. I'll explain it to you if you want."

Not having anything else to do, Kodi agreed to listen, even though it was downright crazy.

Steel wasn't from that time. He came from the year 2016. And this body wasn't his at all. He was the black wolf, the wolf without a name, and it was his job to do the Half-Life simulation to… please his masters. He'd originally been sent to this time to get Balto, a wolf-dog who said masters had a great interest in. They were tired of watching all of the dogs Steel had gathered fail at Half-Life. They wanted someone who might actually stand a chance at beating it. And they thought Balto was that one.

So Steel had been sent to get Balto. So he'd essentially been forced to do all the stuff he'd done to Balto and his life. He'd orchestrated it in such a way that it would end up benefiting Balto though, by giving the wolf-dog everything he'd ever dreamed of, and giving him the life everyone in Steels time wished they had.

Of course, when he'd gotten back to 2016, his masters had been not very happy about this, and decided to send him back again, telling him that if he failed, he'd be killed. Steel did not want that, as most likely, they would replace with him with someone who was blindly loyal to them. Steel wanted to beat his masters, and the only way you could do that was to beat Half-Life. Which was nigh on impossible. No one had ever beaten Half-Life before, and so very many had tried. Five hundred seventy eight to be exact. What happened to those that had tried was a mystery. Steel only knew that the masters put them in some sort of eternal sleep, where they did not age, and did not need to eat or drink.

Steel stopped for a moment, to catch his breath.

"But what if someone was to beat … Half-Life? Why were they so stupid as to tie that to them?" Kodi asked.

From the time they'd come from, the strange canines that were the masters had been given a gift of power, and had been told not to abuse it. And if they ever were to do so, someone would be able to simply go into Half-Life and beat it, killing all four of them. Not wanting their powers to be lost, which was immortality, and time travel, they'd come to Steels time of 2016, and conquered it in less than a day, having unleashed a virus that killed all humans in the space of twenty four hours. They'd then used their technology to set up a base in the Nevada desert, where they'd then learned how to edit the Half-Life simulator and had made it into the complex thing it was today.

They'd taken dogs from the time to become their personal slaves, and Steel was one of them. He'd also been given immortality although his was only from age, meaning he couldn't age, but he could still die from injuries. He'd also been taught how to time travel. In his previous life, Steel had been a wolf, although now he'd been in slavery for so long, he couldn't even remember his original name, so he'd just become called the black wolf.

Steel finally stopped, figuring this was way too much for Kodi to take in.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're saying. Although, I do have one question. If you came here to take my dad, why haven't you done so already? I mean, you said that your masters thought that he had good instincts or whatever to beat it."

"Because I don't want to ruin his life. He's got everything I dream of having. How can you take someone away from that?"

"You could use me."

"What? Why?"

"I've messed up my life. Everyone thinks that it was me who attacked Dusty, so why not just use me?"  
>"Because despite what you may think, you still have a very good life, Kodi."<p>

"Not if they're gonna kill me. So if I'm going to die, why not at least have it trying to do something good? And why did you attack Dusty?"

"Another one of those things I was forced to do. My masters told me too. You see, they can kind of fore tell the future as well. So they must've known that if I did that, you'd show up here."

"So that means you'll use me?"  
>"Only if that's what you want."<p>

"It's either me or my father. My dad has a good life, and like you said, I'd hate for it to be ruined. Me, mine IS ruined. So I will go."

"Alright, follow me."

Steel led Kodi out of that room and into the next, where there was a large platform thing. There was also another large box, this one also with a lot of glowing buttons. Steel pressed some more of them, and the platform began to emit a soft humming noise that grew steadily louder.

"Step up onto the platform."

Kodi did so, and after pressing a few more buttons, Steel joined Kodi. A set of three rings suddenly rose up out of the platform, and began to circulate around Kodi and Steel, the humming growing so loud that it was almost deafening.

"Hold on…" Steel cautioned.

Then, with a flash of bright light, and a noise that sounded like thunder, they were gone.

. . . .

Kodi blinked the spots away from his eyes, and began to look around. He was in a room made completely of the blue metal stuff, and was standing on a platform similar to the one back in the cave, Steel just to his right.

"Welcome to my time, Kodi. Follow me."

Steel led Kodi through several more passages, made completely of the same blue metal. They came to a door, and Steel stopped.

"This is where they are. Do exactly as I say."

Kodi nodded, and felt his heart begin to go even faster, if that was at all possible. Steel scratched the door with a paw, and Kodi noticed he'd lost all white on his figure. He was now an all-black wolf, with stunning blue eyes.

The door in front of them opened, and revealed a small circular chamber, made of the now slightly monotonous blue metal. That wasn't what had Kodi's attention, though. It was the four canines that sat before him that did. They were completely black furred as well, looking almost wolf-like. Their fur was so black though that it was almost evil looking. They all had their heads bowed.

But when the first raised his head, it took nearly all of Kodi's will power to not gasp in horror. Their eyes were red. Blood red. No pupils or nothing, just a red thing.

"Who… is this?" one asked.

"This is Kodi, son of Balto." Steel answered calmly, indicating that he knew how to talk to these canines.

"Why is he here?"

"He-" Steel began, but was cut off.

"Let him answer… please."

"I… I'm here to… do umm, Half-Life? Instead of my dad?" Kodi stuttered.

"Brave of you." Another canine said, sounding as if he was teasing Kodi, or testing him.

Kodi did not react, and he saw a look of pleasure come across all of their faces, most notably Steel.

"Very brave indeed… but the real question is not bravery… will you be able to complete this Kodi? There are no second chances… and if you lose you're ours forever."

"But if I win, you die. And my father is safe, and everyone in this time is free." Kodi replied evenly.

"Very good. I cannot wait to see how well you perform. Take him to training." The leader instructed Steel.

Steel bowed his head, and silently led Kodi out of the room. Neither of them said anything as Steel led Kodi to another small room. This one was rectangular, and had another of the now familiar blue boxes. It also contained a weird looking cage type thing.

Steel pressed some more buttons, and a door on the cage opened.

"Before you get in, I'll tell you some back ground of what you're doing. You will be put into a human body, said humans name is Gordon Freeman. I guess that's all you really need to know, this training exercise will teach you just about everything else you need. Good luck, Kodi."

Kodi got into the cage, and laid down. The door closed in front of him, and Kodi instantly felt quite tired. Kodi prepared himself to face whatever challenges that Half-Life was about to throw at him.

...

This is the cross, I hope I did a good job of explaining everything... I feel like it, but then I'm the one who wrote it and know what's going to happen, so of course I'd feel that way. Hope you like it. By the way, when the next chapter is ready, this story will be posted to the cross section. Just lettin' ya know.

Hope you had a good holiday. I sure did.

-ANonymous


	13. Chapter 13: Hazard Course

Chapter 13 – Hazard Course

Disclaimer - I don't own Balto or Half-Life, other than the CD's. All characters and such go to their respective developers, Universal Studios, and VALVe. I do, however, take credit for my idea that is this story, as well as my OC's, the 'masters', and some that may be added later.

...

Kodi felt very weird. When he remembered where he was supposed to be, his eyes shot open and he looked down at himself. He was indeed in a human body. He had thin white human clothes on. He looked around. He was in some sort of a box shaped room. It was made completely of a yellow-y metal, except for the floor, which was sliver and grated. Kodi could see through said floor, and realized all it was below the very thin metal floor was a dark pit.

Kodi scrambled on to all fours, before remembering the problem. He was no longer a dog. So, gripping the walls of the small room, he stood up wearily on his new two feet. In front of him was what looked like a door, and Kodi put one hand on it, and it opened, revealing a slightly larger room that was made of dark grey concrete. He stepped in on wobbly legs, and the door shut behind him, luckily, another was up ahead.

In front of that door was a small circle thing, with a little box standing on a post in front of it. Kodi slowly approached it, amazed at how fast he seemed to be adapting to this new body. Just when he reached the post thing, someone appeared on the circle, causing Kodi to stumble and fall backwards.

"Ow…"

The person in front of him had a strange glow about her, and she was also wearing a weird looking orange suit thing.

"Hello and welcome to the Black Mesa Hazard Course. I am your holographic assistant. This course will teach you about all of the functions of the new Mark 4 Hazardous Environment Suit. Let's begin by stepping in to your suit." Behind her, the door opened up, revealing a circular room, this one also made of concrete. Kodi had a feeling he'd be seeing a lot of concrete, then.

When Kodi walked into the new room, the door closed behind him, and the same woman's voice sounded from somewhere above him.

"You'll see your suit suspended up in front of you."  
>And sure enough, there was another of the strange orange suits in front of Kodi. It was actually pretty easy to put on, with assistance and directions from his ever-helpful assistant, of course. When he finally got it on, another voice sounded in his ear.<p>

"Welcome to the HEV mark 4 protective system…" Kodi blocked out the rest of what it said, but he also noticed that two small numbers had appeared on the bottom left of his vision. One said 100, and it had a small + figure beside it, the other, 0 and it had a small human stick figure beside it. Kodi right then thanked his ability to read exceptionally well and be able to understand numbers also. He had a feeling he was going to be needing those skills a lot today as well.

The numbers were explained, the 100 was his health, and the 0 was the suits extra shielding, whatever that meant.

He also learned that it had a helmet that could engage over his head by the press of a button on the left side of his neck.

Another door opened, the woman standing just outside of it, and beyond her a long corridor made of surely enough, concrete.

"Moving around in your HEV suit can be tricky. In the next sections, we will have you practice several moves to get you more comfortable."

_Great. _Kodi thought, _I'm not even used to this body and I'm already going to be practicing moves._

It wasn't hard though, all he had to do was run, crawl, and jump for the first few. As he practiced he gradually became more accustomed to the new body he'd be in until he beat this or died. Then came the hard stuff.

Kodi had stepped up onto a metal platform in a large room. At the other end was another metal platform, but in between the one Kodi stood on and the other was a huge gap. It wasn't deep, but apparently he was expected to jump from one side to the other. And it had to be at least 20 feet.

"There's one more style of jumping you need to learn. Long jumping requires its own charging module, that when used correctly, can help you to get over this gap with much space to spare."

In front of him was a small orange device that attached to his suit like a backpack.

"Watch, and I will demonstrate the move for you."

The assistant woman, ran right to the edge of the platform, crouched down slightly, jumped, and then went flying across the gap and to the other side.

Kodi saw why they had him practice crawling and crouching, because he would need it here. So Kodi copied what the lady had done. He ran, crouched, and jumped. And he went sailing over the gap as well, landing lightly on the other side.

"Whoa..." Kodi said. That had been weird. But there was no time to dwell on it, as the assistant lady was already pushing him forward again. Not physically, since she was a hologram, but with her words. Kodi then practiced climbing a ladder which he felt was dumb, because it was so easy. At the top of the ladder was a door that led into another large room, with one thing standing in the middle of it.

"Please enter and start the elevator."

Kodi assumed the elevator was the platform in front of him, so he stepped on. There was a small green button inside of it, and he pressed it. He realized why said machine was called an elevator. Because it elevated you. Kodi rose about ten feet into the air, and looked down below him. The floor below had a red circle painted on it.

"Now that you're up here, there's only one way down. Find the target on the floor below and do your best to land on it. If you take damage from the fall, we will administer first aid at the next station."

Kodi just jumped, not wasting time, and landed, stumbling on the ground. That had hurt, but not as bad as we would've thought. His health number had dropped to 90 though, so he'd apparently taken some damage.

Kodi then learned about health machines. They were white boxes attached to walls, and when you placed your hand on it, it would make your health rise to 100, or until the kit was gone. Health kits were also small and white, but only rose your health by 15 and were often found in boxes. He also learned about power chargers and batteries, which caused the number beside his health to rise. The chargers were gold boxes that were much like health machines, and batteries were similar to health kits.

Kodi went away from that station with each number shining brightly at 100. He also learned that the extra power would protect him from things such as fire or steam. He also learned about radiation. When he went near some, a small thing on his suit would start crackling, and it warned him to stay away. If he was near it or in it, it would harm him, but so long as he stayed away, and had some power in his suit, he'd be protected.

It was then that the time came to fire a gun.

Kodi entered into another large square room, but he stood on a metal platform about five feet above the floor. There were several objects scattered about the room, boxes, pipes and that sort of thing. There were also two sheets of glass. One that read breakable, and one that read unbreakable. To his right on the platform, was a large table with a weird looking thing on it.

"Proceed to the table to pick up your fire arm and ammunition. Here you will learn how to shoot it, as well as fire the attached grenade launcher."

Kodi went up to the small weapon. It didn't look like a gun at all, at least not the kind he was used to.

It was small and silver, with a strange device clamped to the rather short barrel. Around it were small tube looking things, and little clips with bullets in them. Kodi learned that the clips were to be put into a small hole on the bottom of the gun, and that the small tubes were grenades, and to be put into the strange device on the barrel that was creatively called a grenade launcher. Kodi was rather unimpressed with the weapon, but as soon as the target practice came, that changed.

Several small targets popped up around the room, and Kodi was instructed to shoot them. The trigger was easy enough to find, and he aimed the gun at one of the targets, and pulled said trigger.

The gun shot at least ten bullets in two seconds. This was a rapid fire gun. Kodi gradually got more used to it, to the point where he could aim it and hit a target no problem at all. Until one appeared behind the glass that said unbreakable. He shot at it, but it refused to break the glass. It was then that he learned how to shoot the grenade launcher. He had to be careful though, otherwise he might blow himself up he was told.

_Oh well that's very reassuring._

He aimed the gun at the glass, and pulled the secondary trigger. Kodi was sent to the floor due to the kick back of the launcher, and the gun went flying out of his unsure hands.

The explosion completely annihilated the glass and the target though, but it hurt his ears as well.

"Good job! Only a few more lessons to learn."

Kodi was forced to leave the gun behind, much to his great regret. But the rest of the course was easy. He learned how to use things such as boxes or barrels to get past obstacles. He also learned about a small red tool called a crowbar that could be used to break said boxes, inside of which he found health kits, batteries, and some ammo for guns he hadn't yet found.

Then he learned about scientists and security guards. If the former were dressed in white clothes, much like he had been at the beginning of the training. The latter had blue clothes, black vest, and a helmet. They also had a small weapon Kodi recognized as a pistol attached to their hip, as well as a belt for the holster and ammo and that sort of thing.

They were useful for opening doors, giving him cover, and could give him shots that would regenerate some health. That was only when it hit Kodi. He would be shooting things and be getting shot at. He knew this was more like a dream, but it felt real. He only hoped that when the time came, he'd be able to shoot and kill.

After that he learned about his suits attached flashlight and how to turn it on. It was used to light up dark spaces, and was quite cool.

Lastly, he learned about a small thing that looked kind of like a sled, but instead ran on tracks, much like a train. In fact it was called a tram, or train, whichever he preferred. It was just a small rectangle platform with a control panel at one end that could well, control the tram. This was easy to do also. The track led into a dark tunnel. Kodi rode the train into it until it stopped.

The assistants voice appeared in his ear one last time.

"Congratulations! You've completed the Hazard Course, and are now prepared for the challenges you will face."

After that, Kodi heard a weird sound, and after another bright light, woke up inside of a very small space. He realized that he was back in the box, and in his own body.

The box opened up, and the black wolf Kodi knew as Steel stood in front of it.

"You did good. Are you still sure you want to do this, though?"

"What've I got left? Most likely everyone back home wants me dead or thinks I am, if they saw that my trail dead ended at that cliff edge... and if I don't you have to get my dad. I don't want you to take him, he doesn't deserve to die. I do, more than he does anyways."

"You know you probably won't make it through? Hundreds have tried."  
>"I know, but if I do die, it's for something worth dying for. The freedom of your world and my father. Hopefully my dad can beat it then… is there any way I can take his place? Since I'm here, you forget about him? Like, I'm here for him?"<p>

"I'll talk to my masters. It's up to them."

"Thank you."  
>"Don't mention it. Oh and Kodi, good luck, you're going to need it."<p>

With that, the door re-sealed, and Kodi what could very well be his last breath in his body, before being plunged deep into the world of Half-Life.

...

Well, this is how most of the chapters are going to be from now on. There will sometimes be some from the POV of someone in Nome, but most will be of Kodi exploring the world of Half-Life. These chapters could be quite lengthy, and updates may take longer. Just a reminder as well, this will be moved to the cross section in about 24 hours.

Until next time,

may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

-ANonymous


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Balto walked to the very edge of the cliff, where Kodi's trail stopped.

"Where'd he go?" Someone asked from behind him.

Balto looked down. It was a very long drop. Below them were green fields, along with a river making its way through the mountains. He noticed a small ledge about ten feet down, just out far enough that if Kodi would've jumped, he could've landed on it.

"What do you see?"

Balto silently jumped off, the dogs behind him gasped simultaneously. He landed with a dull thud on the rock ledge below him, and sure enough, could smell Kodi.

"Balto?"

Said canine looked up, and saw Kaltag's curious face looking down upon him.

"It smells like Kodi was down here." Balto called up.

When he saw his friend positioning himself to jump down as well, he hurriedly added, "No! Stay there! It looks like there's a way down here too. You go on back to town, it's getting late. I'll see if I can't find Kodi."

"Are you sure? Will you be okay?" Jenna asked worriedly.

"Yes I'll be fine. Besides, it might be better if I do this alone."  
>"Alright, just be careful now, ya hear?"<p>

"I'll be fine." Balto insisted. "I will be back before you know it."

"Alright," Jenna said, "good luck."

"Bye."

Balto waited a few minutes before proceeding into the cave ahead of him, just to make sure that his friends and Jenna had indeed left. Once sure, he entered the dark space.

His pawsteps echoed much like Kodi's had, although his were much softer, nearly blending in to the silence of the cave. It curved around to the left, and Kodi's scent grew ever stronger. Balto came to a crossroads, though. There were two paths. One showing the light of day, another showing a weird orange glow.

Kodi had gone into the other one, so Balto did as well. And he saw the same orange tanks, and blue box as Kodi had seen.

"What is this?" He whispered aloud. He then caught another scent. Steel.

Balto grew worried and puzzled at the same time. How had Steel gotten here? And what had he done with Kodi?

Both dogs had gone into the next cave, and Balto, somewhat reluctantly, left the room with the strange orange liquid in it. This one had another box and a small metal platform.

Balto stepped up onto it, and almost immediately regretted it. Something began spinning around him. He tried to jump over it, but was thrown back by some invisible energy force. The spinning white things surrounded him now. They grew ever brighter, and with a sudden flash, Balto disappeared from the room.

...

Very short, I know, and I apologize. This was supposed to be part of the next chapter, but since in the next two days, I must finish a 750 + word paper, and study for two quizzes & a test, I probably won't have time to work on this, so I may not have another update until next week this time. We'll see though, if I feel good enough Friday night I may type some up.

Sorry.

(Next chapter: Anomalous Materials/Unforseen Consequences

-ANonymous


	15. Chapter 15: Anomalous Materials

Chapter 15- Anomalous Materials

Kodi woke up in another metal room, but this one was more rectangular, and had one large dull grey metal door at the end of it. He looked down, and realized he no longer had his orange suit on, instead it was the boring white clothes. He got up, and walked towards the metal door. Something inside of it clanged into place, and it opened up, splitting in half, one part going into the ground, the other into the ceiling.

It revealed a large room, a desk at the far end, behind that, a map of the United States. Kodi walked in, and noticed some more of the glass panes to his left, and a hall way to his right. There were several scientists and security guards scattered about the area, two of them at the desk.

The security guard was sitting in a chair, typing something into a computer, while the scientist had a book in his hand, and seemed to be helping the security guard.

When said guard noticed Kodi, he spoke.

"Mr. Freeman." (Kodi only then remembered that the person he was in was referred to as Gordon Freeman)" I had a bunch of messages for ya… but we had a system crash about twenty minutes ago, and I'm still trying to find my files. Just one of those days I guess… they were having some problems down in the test chamber too, but I think that's all straightened out. They want you to head down there as soon as you're into your hazard suit."

Kodi had no idea what most of that stuff meant, but he got what he needed. He was to find a hazard suit and put it on, then go to the test chamber. There was only one hall way, so Kodi went that way. There were painted lines on the wall, one was green, and one was yellow. The yellow read, HEV storage, so Kodi followed it along until he came to a room with several lockers in it.

He entered, the small door opening on its own. He walked around the small locker-room, until he noticed the HEV storage at the back of said room. He walked over to it.

The suit was the same orange one he'd had back at the training exercise, which he was grateful for, because it made this thing so much easier to put on. Kodi, now having the orange suit on, proceeded to try to find his way to the test chamber, but noticed a locker that said Freeman on it.

Curious as to what might be in it, he pushed the door open. There wasn't much in it, just an old shirt, a picture of a kid, and a thermos. There were several battery packs in there, and Kodi picked them up.

The annoying voice in the darn suit registered them by blaring into his ears," Power level 15%, 30%, power level is 45%." This would be a long day if he kept hearing that.

Kodi followed the green line, which read test chamber. It led him through a couple hall ways, past scientists and security guards alike. He reached an elevator shaft, the glass paned doors in front of him blocking his entry. There was a button, so Kodi pressed it, and the doors opened up. He walked out onto a thin metal ledge, a red ladder to his left. He stepped into the elevator, however, and pressed the button in there. Only then did he realize how deep this elevator shaft went, and if it fell, he'd surely be dead. He arrived at his destination without a problem however, and had to go through two more halls before reaching a small room that seemed to be called the Control Room, if one judged from the sign outside of it.

There were four scientists inside, three of them standing as if waiting for him.

"Ah here you are, we've just sent the sample down to the test chamber." One said.

"We've boosted the anti-mass spectrometer to 105%, a bit of a gamble, but we need the extra resolution." The second continued  
>"The administrator is very concerned that we get a good analysis of today's sample." A third added.<p>

"They're waiting for you, in the test chamber."

Kodi was allowed through another door after that long and boring speech, and ended went down on another rather pointless elevator that took him down about 10 feet and only made him dizzy from the way it spun around.

Kodi was allowed into one more hallway, only a few scientists populated this one. It led him to another door, which opened as he approached it, allowing him into another metal room with two scientists inside.

"I'm afraid we'll be deviating a bit from standard analysis procedures today, Gordon." The first said.

"Yes but with good reason. This is the purest sample we've seen yet." The second said.

"And potentially the most unstable."  
>"Now, if you follow standard procedures everything should be fine."<p>

"I don't know how you can say that, although I will admit that the possibility of a resonance cascade is extremely unlikely-"

The second interrupted again, sounding very irritated at his collegue.

"Gordon doesn't need to hear all this, he's a trained professional. We've assured the administrator that nothing will go wrong."

The way he said that unnerved Kodi. It was almost as if he was saying something was going to go wrong. Although he had no idea what a resonance cascade was, or what anything else was, it did not sound good, and he definitely did not want to find out what it was.

"Yes, you're right. Gordon, we have complete confidence in you."

"Let's let him in now."

Both scientists walked to opposite ends of the room, and put their heads to two funny looking machines. The machines seemed to read the scientists eyes, and with a positive chime, large metal doors Kodi had only just noticed opened up.

The room in front of him completely baffled him.

It was large, shaped like a tin can, and was made of a mostly yellow metal. The ceiling was so high, Kodi could not see the top. A machine hung down from somewhere up there, all kinds of ropes attached to it. It was circular, and Kodi imagined that the pedestal thing attached to it would probably spin when it was activated. Right below the machine was a pit, three claw like arms keeping Kodi from getting too close to it.

There was a brown metal path that led directly to the middle of the pit, and Kodi guessed, that if he'd heard right, that was where he'd put the sample of whatever it was that the scientists wanted done.

A voice came over a speaker with a loud noise which startled Kodi.

"Testing, testing… everything seems to be in order."

Kodi recognized it as one of the scientists that had been up in the control room.

"Alright Gordon, your suit should keep you comfortable through all this, the sample will be delivered to you in a few moments. If you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotor… we can bring the machine to 105% and hold it there until the carrier arrives."

Kodi noticed a small red ladder leading up to a metal walk way about twenty feet above the floor of the chamber. He ascended it, and saw a small red button near a complex looking computer on the walkway.

He pressed it, and with a whirring noise, the machine came to life.

"Very good, we'll take it from here… power to stage one emitters… now."

A bright yellow light suddenly came down from the machine in the ceiling, almost like a lighting strike that never ended. The yellow beam was pointing into the pit, and Kodi realized that that was why he wasn't allowed in there.

"Stage two emitters… activating now."

With another humming noise, three more smaller beams joined the first, and just as Kodi had guessed, the small pedestal thing did indeed begin to spin.

"Power to 105%."

"Gordon, I'm not sure how long the system can operate at this level, so please, work as quickly as you can."

There were no more voices for a few minutes, and Kodi wondered if he was supposed to be doing something.

"I'm assuring a small discrepancy in… well no, it's well within acceptable boundaries. Sustaining sequence."

Kodi did not like the sound of that, and began to get worried.

"I've just been informed that the sample is ready… it should be coming up to you any moment now.

And sure enough, at the end of the brown metal walkway, a small cart with a large yellow crystal attached to the end of it somehow came up through the walkway.

It was all Kodi could do not to just stare at the beauty of the crystal.

"Please, insert the sample into the test lasers."

Kodi figured they meant the yellow beams that came down, so he got on the end of the cart, and began to push it towards the beams. When it touched, all hell broke loose. The friendly yellow of the beams turned an angry green, and explosions began to sound throughout the facility, most of them not in the room Kodi was in.

"No, shutting down… attempting shut down.. it's not shutting down, its not-"

A beam of green electric lashed out at the wall of the test chamber, and crashed right through it, killing every scientist in the control room.

Kodi couldn't hear anything else except for the ever increasing noise of the machine in front of him.

Not knowing where his courage was coming from, Kodi latched onto the cart and tried to pull it back out of the beams. The beams pulled it back though, and jerked the handle of the cart right out of Kodi's hands.

All of the green beams combined into one large one, and the whole room began to glow an eerie green. Then, with a green flash, Kodi disappeared from the room. He couldn't see anything, hear anything or smell anything, other than the beating of his own heart and his rapid breathing.

Then, with another flash, he appeared in front of the cart again. Kodi latched on again, and pulled with all of his might, but again, the beams pulled back, and jerked it right out of his hand.

With another flash of green energy, Kodi disappeared again, but this time he wasn't just in a black space.

He was in what looked like a small canyon, the strange brown rock surrounding him. A thin layer of a water like substance was at his feet. But none of this had Kodi's attention. It was the thing in front of him.

It had brown scaly skin, with red tentacles where its mouth should be. It stood about as high as a dog, but was much thicker than a dog, and stood only on two legs. It seemed to be drinking the water, the small eyes on either side of its weird shaped head blinking in confusion when it saw Kodi.

It growled, but before it could do much else, Kodi was taken away from there. This time he was in blackness again, but that was only temporary. A yellow/green light suddenly appeared, and Kodi realized he was sat in the middle of a circle of five things. These things stood like humans, but that was the only similarity. They also had brown skin, but it was much darker. They stood in a hunch backed way, with a weird round head. The head had one large red eye, surrounded by several smaller ones. They also had a third limb protruding from their chest like a third arm, and had green chains clasped to their wrists, ankles, and around their necks… almost as if they were slaves?

Before Kodi could see anything else, he was taken away from there as well, and plunged into blackness again. He prepared himself for what horrors he would see this time.

...

Half-Life has begun! I find it rather exciting, as I've been looking forward to writing this for quite a while now. I have an end in sight, which is helpful, because I'll be able to type these a lot faster. I've already started on the next chapter, Unforeseen Consequences, so you can expect it to be here tomorrow or maybe even late tonight. I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it.

-ANonymous


	16. Chapter 16: Unforeseen Consequences

Chapter 16 – Unforeseen Consequences

Kodi found himself lying on his back in the middle of the test chamber. He pulled himself to his feet, and noticed, with a large amount of worry, that the cart had disappeared. The place was coming apart around him, large chunks of concrete scattered about on the test chamber floor. The place itself was bathed in an eerie red light, making this situation a whole lot scarier.

Kodi thought about the creatures he'd just seen. Where these things here to help him? Or were they there to kill him? Kodi supposed he'd find out soon enough.

The doors to the test chamber were opened, looking like they'd been blasted open. Kodi slowly made his way over to the exit. Inside was the dead body of one of the scientists who'd let him into the test chamber, and the ground around him was red with blood.

It was all Kodi could do to make his way through that room and out into the hallway. There were more bodies out there however, and Kodi simply ran past them to the spinning elevator that he'd once thought was so pointless. He collapsed inside of it.

He'd seen blood before, it was no big deal. _Yeah but never this much! _He thought. Kodi didn't have a problem with it, but in this amount…

Kodi supposed he'd better get used to that as well, since he was probably going to see a lot more of it today. So he hauled himself to his two feet, and pressed the button. The elevator spun him around and took him back up. It led to a small room, where he saw two scientists crouched, as if afraid of something.

He approached them.

"Be careful… those things can latch on to your head! And make you into a zombie!"

Kodi had no idea what a zombie was, but he turned around to look at what the scientist was pointing at.

In a large glass to the right of the spinning elevator doors, was a large glass tube container, and Kodi wondered how he'd missed that. Inside of it, was a strange creature, about the size of a water melon. It had four little legs, and was a white fleshy color.

Kodi cautiously approached it, and mindful of what the scientist had said, pressed the button to activate his suits helmet that he only now remembered. It came up and over his head, sealing Kodi completely off from the world outside, the only way he could see was through the tinted glass of the helmet.

The creature in the tube suddenly leapt up, and Kodi caught sight of a nasty looking mouth thing on the bottom of it, which he presumed would latch onto a person's head and make them into whatever a zombie was.

Kodi, deciding not to waste time, turned to leave. He went on his way, back through the corridors, passing more scientist bodies. Kodi hoped he'd find a dead guard soon, as he was pretty sure that they had guns. He would feel a little more comfortable with a weapon in his hand. Kodi found his way back to the large elevator, and pressed the button to activate it. Nothing happened.

He pressed it again. An explosion sounded at the top of the elevator shaft, and Kodi heard the screaming of people inside of it. The elevator fell down the shaft and crashed into the bottom.

"Oh no…" Kodi whispered to himself.

There was no way to open the doors in front of him. He backed up a step, when the sole of his suits boot stepped on something small and metallic. He looked down. It was one of the same red crowbars he'd used back in the training course. He picked up the tool, and tested it. He then smashed the hooked end into one of the glass panes on the elevator door, and it broke into pieces. Kodi crawled through it, and out onto the thin metal walkway. Since there was no elevator, Kodi supposed he'd have to climb the ladder.

He put the crowbar under his arm, and began the long trek up. As he neared the top, the sound of gun shots echoed down the elevator shaft, and Kodi hurried up the rest of the ladder. He came out in another of the boring white hall ways, where he saw the blue uniform of a security guard firing away at something that was presently out of Kodi's sight.

The guards were armed with standard 9mm pistols. When the guard noticed Kodi, he spoke.

"Gordon! Man am I glad to see you, what the hell are these things? And why are they wearing science team uniforms?"

Kodi looked around the corner, and saw perhaps the most grotesque sight he'd seen yet. It was a humanoid figure, indeed wearing the white clothes of a scientist. But its chest was torn open, the ribs forming a sort of deformed mouth like thing. Kodi noticed the thing on his head. It was the same as the weird white crab like creature he'd seen back in the glass tube. So that meant this was a zombie. It moved rather slowly, but had very long claws where its fingers had once been, which Kodi was sure could cause quite a bit of damage.

The security guard reloaded his pistol, and continued firing at the zombie. The bullets didn't seem to do anything, but one finally hit the thing in its head, and it fell to the ground limply.

"Whoa, that was close."

Kodi nodded.

"So… um, you want to come with me?" Kodi asked.

"Yeah sure, we might live longer if we work together."

So Kodi led the guard back through the hall ways he'd come from, until he reached the same reception desk that he'd first started at. There were two dead guards in there along with a few scientists. Kodi approached the two guards, intending on grabbing their guns, when he heard a scream behind him.

Kodi whirled around, and saw another of the crab creatures on his guards head.

The man stumbled around, trying desperately to pry the thing off. Instinct powering him, Kodi ran at the poor guy, and swung his crowbar around in a base-ball style it, tearing the crab off of the guards head. But it was too late, and the man was already dead. He had a nasty hole in his skull, through which Kodi would've been able to see his brains, if he hadn't turned away.

He went back to the other two dead guards. He pulled the small pistol off of one, and, remembering his weapon training, took the clip out to check the amount of ammo it had. It was full. Kodi pulled the belts off of the guards, and took the holster for his pistol as well. He managed to fasten the belts around his the waist of his orange suit in such a way that he had somewhere to put the crowbar and the pistol, as well as keep extra clips of ammo.

Kodi took as much ammo as the guards had. He then noticed a small vent cover behind one of the guards. Seeing as how he had no other way out, Kodi crawled in.

It seemed to go on forever, but eventually the vent did end, and Kodi dropped down into a small office, scaring a shaken scientist.

He noticed a health machine on one of the walls, but he did not need it, as he already had full health. There were also several fist sized objects in a box on a desk.

"Oh you have one of the new HEV suits, that should be very useful."

"For what?" Kodi asked, puzzled.

"For surviving this, of course!"

Kodi chose not to respond, and instead picked up one of the fist sized objects. It was a hand grenade, although Kodi didn't know that it was called that, he did know that you would pull the pin off of said explosive and then throw it at something, at least, that was what he assumed.

Thinking an explosion might be helpful at some point, Kodi attached three of the objects to his ammo belts, and exited the office, and entered a white corridor.

The doors to his left looked very much locked, so his only option was to go right.

Kodi slowly slipped out his gun, although he really didn't need it, it was just comforting to feel the smooth metal of the gun in his gloved hands.

Kodi passed a sign that read, Black Mesa Sewer system.

_What's a sewer?_

It didn't take him long to find out. Sewers were nasty pipes through which waste ran. He'd figured this out when he'd come to a dead end, and his only option was to enter the sewer.

He made his way through the pipes, until a red ladder beckoned him, and he quickly climbed up it. He came out in another small metal corridor. He followed these for a ways, occasionally having to stop to shoot some zombies or some of the weird head things.

Eventually, he came out in a large room. In front of him was a veritable river of waste. The room was rather large, and Kodi saw a broken walk way about ten feet above him.

Then he heard the growl. It was the same as the strange brown creature he'd seen back at the test chamber.

Kodi was on a concrete walkway that followed the length of the river of sewage, but wasn't very high from it. Out of the sludge came one of the same two legged monsters he'd seen. It growled at him, then spat something green out of its mouth. Kodi ducked the stuff, and looked behind him. It sizzled on the wall, leaving a sizeable mark. Not wanting to get hit by that any time soon, Kodi started shooting the thing. His bullets had little effect, and he soon ran out of them. He scrambled to reload, but wasn't fast enough.

The thing whirled around in a 360 degree turn, slashing its long alligator like tail at Kodi. It hit him full force, and sent him rolling towards the river of sewage, the pistol in his hand going flying, clattering to the ground so very far away. The thing charged him again, but Kodi was ready. He'd pulled the pin on one of the things he'd picked up, and dove out of the way, dropping the object right at the creature's feet. It looked at the object, and Kodi got as far away as he could.

The grenade exploded, as did the creature, and it sprayed a nasty green blood everywhere. Luckily, Kodi was far enough back that it didn't hit him. He picked up his pistol, made sure it was loaded, and tucked it away.

Kodi looked around for a way out. He saw a rope in front of him that seemed to go right past the walkway. He put a hand on it, and suddenly, the rope wrapped itself around him, and began to pull him upwards. Kodi looked up and saw a large red barrel shaped organism that had somehow attached itself to the ceiling. It had a very sharp set of teeth on it, and looked ready to eat him. Kodi frenziedly reached for his pistol, and managed to pull it out. He fired off seven shots, only four hit the thing, but it was enough. It dropped him, and Kodi looked down. He hadn't realized how high the thing had taken him, and the walkway had to be at least twenty feet down. Kodi fell, and the walkway didn't give an inch.

"Warning, minor fracture detected, automatic medical assistance engaged."

"No duh minor fracture…" Kodi mocked the darn suit. It had hurt, and the fall had taken him down to 79% health, with 45% extra suit power. One of the nice things Kodi had learned about the suits in training though, was that it could heal your injuries a lot faster than normal. The pain from his fractured rib was already beginning to dull, so Kodi hauled himself unsteadily to his feet. He got off the metal walk way and into another concrete walkway. This one was rather short, and took him to an elevator.

Kodi pressed the button for this one, and thankfully the doors opened up right away, meaning it was still working.

Kodi collapsed inside. He was already tired, and he still had a long way to go. What a fun day this was turning out to be. Kodi pressed the button inside the elevator, and it took him up, hopefully towards the surface. Perhaps he could get up to the surface and find help, or a way out. He had no idea what he was doing, but he knew that his fights were a long way from being done. In fact, they were only just beginning.

...

I've decided that I'm going to edit some of the paths that you'd normally take in Half-Life, just for the sake of time. It can be quite repetitive, and would take a while to write. Pretty soon, more action will begin to come into this story, as this is kind of just an introduction for Kodi. Soon he'll be fighting for his life.

I really am enjoying writing this. Next chapter - Office Complex

-ANonymous

P.S. I don't know if anyone cares, but if you want to watch my play through of Half-Life, you can go to my profile, and I will have links posted on there corresponding to the chapters I've written. If you so wish to watch it, I'll put them on when I have a new chapter. When I post the next chapter, I'll put the Office Complex link.


	17. Chapter 17: Office Complex

Chapter 17 – Office Complex

The elevator travelled up to the highest floor it could manage, and stopped. With a chime, the doors opened. It was another of the dull boring white hall ways. Except this one had no lights in it.

Kodi slowly peeked out, and looked both ways. To his right was a set of red double doors, to the left was a wire that hung out of the ceiling, but it had a beam of blue light coming out of it, which sparked as it hit the floor. Kodi didn't know what it was, but he didn't really want to find out, so he went for the doors.

Then he remembered that his suit had a built in flashlight, and he activated it, sending a small beam of circular light out in front of him. Upon reaching the doors, he discovered that they were locked. He banged on them a couple of times, but it was no use.

He turned towards the sparking rope.

Beyond it was another door, beside it a window that looked like it could be easily smashed by his crowbar. Kodi walked up to the cable, and then noticed the face latching creatures behind it.

He hurriedly took out his pistol, but he needn't have worried. The cable took care of them when they got too close, sending out a beam of blue energy to them and literally burning them alive.

Now Kodi knew he most likely wouldn't be able to survive that.

"What do I do now?" Kodi wondered aloud.

He went to turn around, but his flashlight reflected off of something gray and metallic.

It was another vent cover, just in front of the sparking cable. It looked as though that was the only thing to do.

Kodi, reluctant at having to waste another explosive on the cover, pulled the pin on his second grenade and threw it. It bounced along the ground and came to a halt beside the vent cover.

Kodi made sure to get back a ways before it exploded.

It took out the vent cover, and Kodi made sure all of his weapons were tucked neatly away before running at the hole, and diving into the vent.

It only led one way, so Kodi shuffled himself around, and began to crawl that way. He growled in frustration when he realized that the vent was very dark, which was to be expected. His flashlight didn't do much, as it only pointed straight down. He shuffled along for what felt like forever until the vent suddenly collapsed, and he fell to the ground right in front of a scientist.

"Hello."

Kodi growled again, and picked himself up. He was in a small room that looked to be a resting area, the small chairs and sofas attesting to that. There were also a couple of drink machines in the room. Kodi saw the same red doors that'd been locked, and he walked up to them. He'd gotten onto the other side of the door, but not the cable.

He pushed the doors open, and walked back into the room.

Kodi noticed behind one of the sofas a small door. Kodi pushed the small sofa out of the way, and opened the door. He was in a small closet like area, a single red lever attached to a complex looking control panel. Kodi pulled it down, and then walked back to look out in the hall way.

Sure enough, the blue energy disappeared, leaving only a smoking hole in the ground.

Kodi was about to leave, when he heard a cry from behind him.

"Where are you going?" the scientist asked.

"I'm trying to get out of here?" Kodi replied unsurely, as he didn't really know what he was doing at that point.  
>"Why is everyone trying to go to the surface? I'm sure that someone will be along to rescue us."<p>

"So I take it you're going to stay here?"

"Yes."

"Alright, if I find help, I'll let them know you're down here."

Kodi knew that it was a simulation, but it felt so real. He would try to save as many of the people in the game as he could. He remembered that Steel had told him many had died trying to beat this. So, maybe, since Kodi could be put in here, some of the dogs were put in as the other characters? Kodi wasn't sure, but just in case, he would help as many as he could.

The window was easily smashed, and it took Kodi to another crossroads. There was a dark corridor with many boxes in it, and another set of red doors, these ones thankfully unlocked and opened.

Kodi chose the boxes, as he knew that he may find something useful in them. After five minutes of smashing, he had found two batteries, and a health kit, putting him up to 94 health and 75 power.

The corridor led him to a somewhat large room. There was another metal walkway in front of him, below that a lot more boxes. On the right side of the walkway, pressed up against the concrete was was a green box, on it a smaller orange box and a shotgun.

Beyond that was a grated metal fence, through which Kodi could see the blue uniform of a security officer.

Kodi took the shotgun in his hands. It was a pump shotgun, pistol grip. Kodi pulled the trigger experimentally. It didn't shoot, so it wasn't loaded. Thankfully, the orange box contained some shotgun shells, and Kodi took one out.

He wasn't sure how to load this gun, as it did not have a clip. However, underneath the gun was a small hole, just in front of the trigger, where one would insert the shells. Kodi put it in. The gun could take eight shells when fully loaded. Kodi cocked it, and assumed it was ready to fire. There wasn't any strap or anything to carry extra ammo, so Kodi only had eight shots until he had to ditch the gun.

Kodi walked across the rest of the walkway, shotgun in hand.

"Stand back, and I'll open the door."

The security guard pulled a lever, and the door opened up.

"Well, I'm glad I found you, cause I really didn't want to die alone!"

"Me either."

"What's your name? I'm Tom."

Kodi thought for a moment. Would he use his real name? Or Gordon?

"I'm Gordon."

After that brief introduction, Kodi went down and smashed open some more boxes. He found more health kits and batteries, and by the time he walked out, he had full health and power.

Kodi led Tom back to the red fire doors, and thankfully, this corridor was quite well lit up. It went on for a ways, until it came to a small storage room. Kodi grabbed some more clips for his pistol, as did the security guard.

There was another opening which led to another large room. Inside said room were several boxes, and at the far end was a platform, above which there was a gray circle.

As soon as Kodi stepped into the room, the gray circle descended, revealing a very deadly looking gun. It had six barrels, just like a Gatling gun. It fired on Kodi, bullets flying everywhere. One hit him in the arm, spinning him around. Tom pulled him out of the way before any more bullets could hit him.

The injury had taken only one health and two power away from Kodi. It had hurt, but the suit had somehow stopped the bullet. Kodi wished that, if he ever got out of here, that he could have an HEV suit in real life.

"You alright?"

"Yeah… thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"So, how do we kill that thing?"

"You don't. Those were designed to be practically indestructible, the only way you can kill it is if you find a power switch. The switch for that one is underneath the walkway, below that gun."

"So what do we do?"

"Wait for it to shut off, then make a run."

They did so, and soon enough the turret shut off, retreating back up into the ceiling. Both Kodi and Tom ran out and into another corridor before the turret could even come back out.

This one was a stair well, and the two hiked up. Gunshots rang out, and they hurried up the rest of the stairs.

They arrived just in time to see another security guard reloading his gun.

"Hah, got another one!"

There were four of the crab things dead in front of him.

The guard agreed to team up with Kodi and Tom, and they went on. It was mostly boring hall ways, until they reached the Office Complex.

Kodi heard a strange charging sound, then the scream of a scientist.

Both Tom and the new security guard rushed past him, pistols at the ready.

The halls were different here, a lot smaller, and there was a lot more offices, most of them very small and containing only one desk and a computer, as well as some filing cabinets, hence why this place was called the Office Complex.

The two guards rushed around the corner, and began firing away at something.

Kodi followed them, and instead of going right, like his companions had, he went left. And came face to face with one of the brown hunch backed things he'd seen.

It growled at him, and green energy seemed to appear in the air around it.

It shot the electric, and Kodi barely got out of the way. The energy left a good sized smoking hole in the wall behind him.

Kodi whirled around again, shot gun at the ready.

He pulled the trigger, and the blast tore right through the alien's head. Unfortunately, the recoil from the weapon was so strong compared to the pistol, that Kodi had been nowhere near ready for it. He ended up falling embarrassingly on his back.

He got back up, and cocked the shotgun.

_Seven shots left_. He thought to himself.

Kodi heard another scream, and hurried off to find his friends.

He found Tom lying face down, a nasty looking hole through the back of his armor vest. There was another of the barrel shaped organisms on the ceiling, and Kodi saw the other security guard inside of it, only his black boots still visible.

Kodi didn't bother shooting it, as the guy was probably already dead. Instead he picked up as much ammo as he could carry from Tom, and continued on.

He had to shoot three more of the electricity aliens, getting better at shooting the shot gun each time.

He came to another stone stairwell. He stood at the bottom of said stairs, and next to him was a brown trash can, a skinny scientist behind that.

"You want to come with me?" Kodi asked. The man nodded.

"I've just overheard the secure access announcement. Soldiers have arrived and they're coming to rescue us, of course I have my doubts we'll live long enough to greet them."

"I take that as a yes?"

"Yes, I'll come with you."

Kodi led the scientist up the stairs, mindful that everyone who had come with him so far was dead. It led up to another boring concrete hall, inside of which stood a zombie. Kodi shot it, taking him down to three shots left. At the end of the long corridor was a set of doors, through which Kodi could see an elevator shaft, no elevator was in sight however.

On the left was another small office, the door looking very much locked. Kodi slowly went forward, until something landed on his back, tackling him to the ground. The shotgun slid out of his grasp.

Kodi turned to see the zombie on top of him.

He kicked off and crawled towards his shotgun.

The zombie followed him. Knowing he wouldn't be able to shoot the gun at this short of a range, especially not with the risk of hitting the scientist who stood cowering behind the zombie.

Kodi smashed the butt of the shotgun into the crab thing on the zombies head. There was no reaction, so Kodi backed up to fire. He did, and the head thing went flying off.

"It's safe now." Kodi said unnecessarily.

The scientist began to walk forward until a green bolt of electric lashed out and hit the man in the back, impaling him to the wall. He slumped down, dead.

Kodi hurriedly cocked his gun. Two of the brown aliens came up. Kodi shot one, and it fell back, dead. The other was undeterred by this, and began charging up an attack. Kodi cocked the shotgun again, but the monster was faster. Green electric hit him in the chest. His suit absorbed most of it, but he lost ten extra power.

The blast sent him flying back and into the elevator shaft, only a desperate hand managed to cling onto the door. The shotgun went sailing down into the cavern, continuing on into the blackness before it clanged to the ground that Kodi could not see, he only heard the echo of the weapon hitting said ground.

The electric alien started to run towards Kodi, fully intent on pushing him the rest of the way off.

With one hand still clinging on the door, Kodi grabbed his pistol and fired off three shots. The first missed, but the second hit the creature in the leg, and the third went right through its large red eye, killing it. Kodi slipped his pistol away, and pulled himself back up and out of the elevator shaft, and collapsed onto the ground.

His breathing and heart rate were quite high, but that was to be expected, seeing as though he'd almost just died right there.

Kodi took a few minutes to calm himself down, before crawling over to his pistol and reloading it. He looked back into the elevator shaft, a yellow ladder on the wall opposite beckoning him, as it was the only way to go.

When Kodi was sure he wouldn't lose any of his things, he made a running jump for the ladder, and to no one else's surprise but his own, he managed to latch onto it.

The ladder did not go down, only up, so there was no hope of him getting his shotgun back.

It'd been nearly out of bullets anyway. Kodi climbed up the ladder until he reached the top of the shaft. He saw the broken elevator up here. There was another small vent cover on top of it. Kodi didn't think as he kicked off from the ladder, landing with a loud clang on the top of the elevator, the metal plates on his suit impacting the metal of the elevator. He kicked out the vent shaft, and dropped into the elevator. The doors were still open, and Kodi walked out. He could only go right.

There was a long hall way in front of him, with flashing red lights that could only mean good things. Kodi hoped he'd meet the soldiers soon, so perhaps he could get out of there, and get this over with.

...

Well, this is the longest chapter I've done so far, at nearly 3000 words. Kodi seems to be getting exceptional at fighting, which he's going to be doing a lot of in the next chapter, 'We've got Hostiles!'

So, will Kodi get rescued and win? Find out next time. Or maybe not, because I just realized I almost forgot that Balto time travelled to 2016. He's going to come into 'play' later.

Until next time-

Peace.

-ANonymous

P.S. Don't forget that if you want to watch Half-Life, that there will be links on my profile. I'll only post reminders for a few more chapters, so you don't get tired of seeing them.


	18. Chapter 18: We've Got Hostiles

Chapter 18 – We've Got Hostiles…

Balto found himself in a very strange room. He was on a platform similar to the one back in the cave, except he wasn't in the cave anymore. He was instead surrounded by a blue metal, which looked very futuristic.

He could still smell Kodi, but not very much. This stuff didn't seem to hold scent very well. Balto hopped off the platform, and out walked wearily out of the room. This place held a sense of foreboding, and Balto didn't like it.

He followed where he thought Kodi had gone through the blue metal hallways, occasionally having to duck behind cover when another dog strolled past. He could still smell Steel with Kodi, but said smell seemed to have changed slightly, as it had a more wolf-like appearance. He came to another door where it seemed Kodi and Steel had entered, then left again, going down to the right. Balto was almost going to go into the room, but something made him decide not to, which was probably a good thing, because if he would've, his life as well as Kodi's could've been in extreme jeopardy.

He followed this trail to another door, where it seemed to end. Balto put a paw on it, and the metal door slid up into the metal ceiling with a soft hiss.

There was a black wolf in there, as well as a box and another control panel. The wolf was standing at the control panel, and was watching something on a piece of glass above it. His head turned to look at Balto, and when he realized it was Balto, the rest of his body turned as well.

"Steel?" Balto asked.

"Balto, you really should not be here-"

"What is going on here, and why do you look like a wolf? And where is my son, because I swear, if you've hurt him-"

"Calm down. Your son is fine, for now anyway."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Sit down, and I'll tell you."

Steel explained to Balto everything he had to Kodi, and added the part about his son taking Balto's place in the simulation.

"So all this time… you really weren't bad… you just did those things because you were forced?"  
>"Yes. Kodi didn't attack Dusty either, I did that."<p>

"Oh no. He should not be in there! Get him out! My son needs a chance at life!"

"It was his choice, he said the same things about you." Steel replied calmly.

"Isn't there any way I can help him?"

"Maybe… you'd have to go through training first, and we have to be extra careful. If my masters find out you're here, it could mean the end of you and your son's lives."

"I'll help Kodi any way I can, I owe it to him."

"Alright, follow me."

. . . .

The hall way Kodi was in was long and narrow for the most part. Just up in front of him, it looked like another path went to the left, and there was a door on the right, that had no visible handle, beside it was two windows made of a very thick looking glass.

Kodi took one step forward, and a scientist jumped out from a left, and he almost shot the man until he realized it really was a scientist. After just being tackled by a flying zombie falling from a walkway, he was understandably weary.

The man didn't seem to notice Kodi, or didn't care, for he went straight to the windows and began pounding on them with all of his might.

"For God's sake open the silo door! They're coming for us and it's our only way out!" Kodi ran forward about five feet to see who was in the room. To his left was a large metal door, the words SILO D ACCESS printed on it in large letters.

There was a security guard in the small room, who was about to press something on a control panel, when, out of a rather large vent beside him, a zombie came out. It grabbed the security guards neck, and the poor guy didn't even have time to pull out his gun before being pulled away and into the vent. Kodi saw some red blood spatter on the wall of the vent, and looked away.

Upon seeing this the scientist resumed his desperate cries.

"Oh my God we're doomed!"

The man ran off down the hall. Kodi followed him, but he stopped when he noticed a small box attached to the wall, a strip of blue light extending from it.

"Hey! Watch out-"

The scientist didn't hear him, and walked right through the blue light. The box exploded, almost incinerating the scientist, spraying a nasty amount of gore around.

Kodi felt strangely immune. He didn't get sick when he saw that. He wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing. At least now he knew that you didn't want to step through those things. Kodi turned a corner, and came face to face with another thin light, only this one was red. There were two small boxes on either side of it.

Kodi stepped over it, and sighed in relief. He entered into a rather large storage area, boxes and other random items scattered around in it. Suddenly behind him, he heard a strange noise.

He turned around and saw one of the head crabs appear seemingly out of thin air. And drop right onto the light. This one did not explode. Instead, behind him, Kodi heard something whine to life, and it sounded a lot similar to the auto-gun back in the office complex. Kodi whirled around and saw another gun, except this one stood on a tripod. It didn't look any less deadly though, and it had no problem proving that to Kodi. It opened fire on him, and Kodi ducked back into the hall way he'd just come from, smashing the head crab with his crowbar as he went.

The bullets impacted the concrete wall beside him for a few seconds, until he heard the gun start scanning again.

Kodi remembered seeing an orange box behind the turret, and it looked like it'd said 'explosives' on it. He unhooked the last grenade from his belt, and peeked around the corner. The turret opened fire on him again, but he got an idea of how hard he needed to throw. Kodi pulled the pin, and threw the explosive in what he hoped was the right direction.

A few seconds later, an explosion that the grenade alone could not have cause rocked the room, and Kodi was sure that he'd been right about the explosive box. He peeked around again, and saw the turret was indeed dead, having been blown apart. Kodi walked into the room, pistol at the ready.

The explosion had blown up some more of the boxes, and Kodi saw a box of shotgun ammo. Unfortunately, he did not have a gun to load said ammo in to. What he did see, though, was a black boot poking out from behind a large box. Kodi went up to it and found the body of a type of person he'd not yet seen. This person was wearing white cameo pants, a green vest, and a white helmet. He was pretty good sized too, and would've no doubt been rather intimidating if he'd been alive. Kodi was sure that this was a soldier; the only question was why he was dead. Had an alien killed him? He didn't see any holes from the electricity aliens, or any claw marks from the zombies… upon closer inspection, he saw a small hole in the persons head, indicating he'd been shot. Kodi wondered why. Had this turret shot him? Or was something else very bad going on here? If Kodi had learned anything from this game so far was that it wasn't as simple as just shooting anything. Kodi decided to put it off for now.

Kodi saw, still clutched in the man's hand, the same type of rapid fire weapon he'd used back in the training course. He picked it up without hesitating, and checked it over. It was fully loaded with bullets, but there was no ammo for the grenade launcher. It also had a handy strap on it, so in case he got tired of carrying it, he could just slip it over his shoulder. Still, he took as much ammo he could carry for the gun, having to regretfully trade some of the machine gun clips for his pistol clips, leaving some behind. He'd also found four more hand grenades.

Kodi walked down a few more halls, before coming to another storage room, this one a veritable maze of blue and red trip wires, several turrets scattered throughout the room. Two scientists stood, gawking at the large maze.

"Get back." Kodi commanded, a grenade already in his hand.

"What are you going to do? Blow it up? You can't! Those are Black Mesa security turrets! Look, they have the logo on them!" A small skinny scientist shouted.

Kodi saw a yellow square inside of a circle on the turrets, and took that to be the logo. He'd seen it scattered throughout this place, but hadn't really paid much attention to it.

"But they weren't put up by us!" The other protested.

"So that means the military is here! We're saved!"

"We still have to get through though, and this is the only way." Kodi put in.

"Alright, we'll get back."

The scientists ducked down behind the corner, and Kodi tossed the grenade into the room. He heard several explosions, and the two scientists beside him covered their ears. Kodi didn't need to, because he was already used to the noise of the guns and explosions. His suit helmet also helped.

Kodi walked into the room, the two scientists following him. The only way out of that room was a ladder leading up to a metal walkway that extended high above him. Kodi scaled it easily, the two following behind him. The walkway led him to another small room, a set of metal stairs leading down to the ground below. Kodi could see an open freight elevator, beside it, stood a soldier, facing away from him.

Kodi stood back, but his scientist friends were nowhere near as cautious.

"Rescued at last, thank God you're here!" one exclaimed as they rushed down the stairs to greet the soldier.

"We'll see about that," the man growled, and blew holes in each of the scientists, and they fell to the ground beside him, screaming in pain.

Kodi quietly backed up, but the soldier must've heard him, as bullets began impacting the bottom of the metal walkway. The soldier could be heard ascending the stairs, his boots clomping on the metal giving him away. Kodi readied his own gun. The soldier leapt around the corner, and opened fire at the same time as Kodi. The four bullets hit him in the stomach, and he winced. It caused his aim to go up, though, and Kodi's bullets went right through the soldiers face. The man flipped off the walkway, and landed at the bottom of the stairs with a horrible crunch.

Kodi put a hand over his stomach, but there was nothing there. The suit had somehow repaired itself, and the stinging of the bullets was already beginning to fade.

Kodi thought about what just happened. The soldiers apparently weren't there to rescue them. He had no idea why they would want to kill him. But it was probably just so he could be tested more. Kodi hadn't expected it to be this easy.

He went on down the stairs, and left with little else to do, pressed the button and travelled up the large elevator. It took him to another of the now boring storage rooms, but this one was rather large, and Kodi could hear several soldiers talking over their radios.

Kodi stayed up against the wall, taking cover against the boxes.

"Squad! We've got hostiles!"  
>Kodi knew what that meant. Bullets began peppering his position, and he took off running. There was a walkway about five feet above him, the stairs leading up to it at the end of the room. A soldier flew around the corner, and Kodi mowed him down. There was another soldier up on the walkway, this one holding a shotgun.<p>

As soon as Kodi tried to run up the stairs, the man shot him in the chest, and Kodi was blown backwards and off of the rail, his suit having lost a disturbing amount of power from that hit. Kodi saw the guy re cocking his shotgun, and didn't hesitate to shoot him first. That left one soldier in the room, who charged Kodi.

He swung a fist around and knocked Kodi's gun right out of his hand. He slammed a knee up into Kodi's stomach, and then shoved him into the wall, putting a pistol right to the forehead of his HEV helmet.

"I'm gonna kill you mother-"

A loud bang interrupted him and the soldier fell down, a large hole in the back of his head, behind him stood a scientist, a smoking revolver in his hands.

"Go on, friend." The man spoke, "I'm staying here."

Kodi did so after picking up his gun. The walkway took him to another metal hall way, where he had to use another grenade on some more turrets. This one took him to another large room with another walkway surrounding the wall, the stairs again at the far end of the room.

"Movement!"

Kodi sighed in annoyance, and made sure his machine gun was loaded. Three soldiers came out from behind a box, and Kodi mowed two of them down before they got a chance to fire. The third one hid behind a box, before sticking his gun hand out and firing in a technique that was called spraying and praying.

None of the bullets actually hit Kodi, but several came quite close. Kodi lobbed his third grenade, and it landed right beside the soldier. All he had time to do was look at it before it exploded, again soaking the area with a nasty amount of gore.

As Kodi walked passed he was thankful for the helmet, as he did not think he'd enjoy the smell of burning flesh. Kodi walked up onto this walkway and found more ammo and grenades in a box, as well as several more containers to hook onto his ammo belts, so he was able to carry a lot more ammo.

After taking a few minutes to get loaded up, he proceeded on. He came to another of the now monotonous metal walkways. But this one spanned over an incredibly deep chasm, and Kodi wasted no time getting across it. He came to another room similar to the one he'd just left, except this time he was at the top of it. Meaning the three more soldiers below him couldn't take cover behind any boxes, since Kodi was so far above them. The three were taken care of without a sweat.

Kodi continued on towards the stairs that would take him back down, when something hit his back so hard, he nearly went flying over the guard rail and off the walkway. His machine gun did, and clattered loudly to the ground that was so very far below him.

Kodi turned to see another soldier, a look of absolute hatred on the man's face. Kodi went for his pistol, but that weapon was soon sent to the same fate as the machine gun. The soldier drew out a long wicked looking knife, and smiled evilly. Kodi pulled out his crowbar and backed up. The stairs were at the soldiers back, meaning Kodi was trapped.

"By the time I'm done with you, your insides will be your outside."

The guy swung his knife, and Kodi did the same with his crowbar, and somehow managed to catch the knife's blade in the hooked end of the crowbar. With a jerk of his wrist, Kodi flicked the knife out of the soldiers hand, watching in a small amount of satisfaction as his knife fell to the ground below him.

Kodi swung the crowbar at the soldier again, but the guy ducked it and lashed out with a kick, tripping Kodi. He landed on the walkway with a clang, the crowbar still in hand.

_Alright. _Kodi thought, getting angry.

He lashed out with his own kick. There wasn't much force behind it, but it hit the soldier in the knee, and he stumbled back just a little bit. Kodi dove for the guys legs, and tripped him.

The guys stomach landed right on the guard rail, and Kodi pushed him off, watching as he fell screaming to the ground. The guy landed with a thud in a box, no doubt dead. Kodi took a few minutes to catch his breath. He really had to get better at fighting.

Kodi put away his crowbar, and made the long trek down the stairs. He gathered up his two guns, and proceeded to look for a way out. He found it in the form of another freight elevator, and pressed the button to go up that one.

Once he got about half way up the shaft, he could tell as there was no roof on the elevator, it was more like just a simple rising platform, a high pitched whine assaulted his ears, and the next moment, an ear splitting explosion rocked the entire elevator.

The lift stopped for a moment, before continuing on. It reached near the top when another explosion came, this time stopping the elevator for good. Luckily it was high enough up that all he had to do was step up.

The first thing he noticed was the heat. He was finally on the surface! The sun shone bright and clear, and Kodi guessed it had to be nigh on a hundred degrees out. It was another storage area, except this time it was all huge blue and red crates, with the Black Mesa logo stamped on their sides. The next thing Kodi noticed was the strange roaring sound.

It sounded a lot similar to the bush plane that Duke had used back in Nome; the one Kodi and his former friends had raced only a few months ago. To him it felt like a life time ago.

Kodi walked out from the small room he was in, and instantly regretted it. There was at least twenty soldiers out in the storage area, and nearly all of them had just noticed him.

"Squad, get Freeman!"

Kodi sighed.

"Mister, we will kick your ass." A soldier yelled at him.

"We'll see about that." Kodi muttered under his breath. He slipped his machine gun over his shoulder, and took out his last two grenades.

He pulled the pins on both of them, and charged out into the open. He saw a giant thing, that somewhat resembled a bush plane. It was large and painted a white cameo color, similar to the pants that the soldiers wore. It was a lot different than the bush plane, though, its propellers were on the top, instead of the front. Kodi didn't have any more time to look than that, though.

Four soldiers came at him, and Kodi threw both grenades. They exploded in mid-air, right in the soldiers faces. Kodi didn't stay to watch though. He was looking for a way back down into the facility. It was much too dangerous to try and escape here, not with all of the soldiers around. Another whine sounded, seemingly right above Kodi. He picked up his speed, but wasn't fast enough, because even though he'd been in his human body for quite a while, he still couldn't run and use it to the best of his ability yet.

The bomb exploded behind him, tossing him into the air, and taking even more power from his already drained HEV suit. It did help him though, as Kodi saw a door that looked like it just came up out of the ground.

He hit said ground with a roll, and made a run for the door. Once more a group of soldiers tried to stop him, but Kodi stabbed his crowbar through the lead man's heart, and used his gun to shoot the rest of his companions. Kodi burst in through the door, and fell down a ten foot ladder, only barely managing to grab on to it.

He was in a small little room, a health machine and power machine placed in there conveniently for him. Kodi charged up his suit, and was soon at 100% for both health and power, which extremely good compared to his previous 68 health and 33 power.

There was a small hatch that read Black Mesa Ventilation System on it. From his experience today, Kodi hadn't really like vents, but he preferred one now to being shot at by soldiers and almost being blown up by bombs that seemed to fall out of the sky.

As if on cue, another bomb hit the ground, shaking the entire room, and putting a fine layer of dust down onto Kodi.

He wasted no time getting into the vents, as he could hear soldiers climbing down the ladder behind him. Kodi soon lost them in the maze of vents though.

Not really sure where he was going, Kodi just crawled along until he came across a vent that was painted red. Realizing that he was back where he'd first started, Kodi crawled out and was in the small room he'd seen the security guard in. A voice spoke next to him, and Kodi nearly beat the scientist to death with his crowbar.

How had that man gotten in here? Kodi was just about to ask that, but the scientist beat him to it.

"So much for the government, their idea of containment is to kill everyone associated with the project. Judging from your suit I'd say you were a part of what went wrong, right? Now look, if anyone can end this catastrophe it would be the science team at Lambda Complex at the opposite end of the base. With the transit system out, I can't tell you how to get there, but there's an old decommissioned rail system somewhere through here, beyond the silo complex. If you can make it through the Silo complex, you might be able to work your way through the old tunnels to track down whatever is left of the Lambda team. You can trust them; you can trust all of us. Good luck."

Kodi took a moment to take in what had just been said. Apparently he was supposed to use a rail system to get to a Lambda Complex. That would somehow help him end this.

"Do you want to come with me?"

"No. I must stay here and make sure the military won't follow you."

"Okay."

Kodi pressed the button to open the silo door, and headed on through it. It led him to a tunnel with a bunch of boards over it. He sighed. He pulled out his crowbar and got to work.

...

4000 words, oh yeah. Well, now is where the fun begins. This chapter had a lot of action, which I'm really not too good at writing. I think I did good though, but you tell me.

(Next chapter: Blast Pit. Kodi meets his first Half-Life 'boss'.

-ANonymous

P.S. Just a reminder that if you want to watch Half-Life and get a better idea of what is actually going on or what some stuff actually looks like, there are links to my playthrough of HL on my profile.


	19. Chapter 19: Blast Pit

Chapter 19 – Blast Pit

Kodi had finally made a hole in the boards big enough for him to squeeze through. His footsteps echoed around him, so he assumed that the area he was entering was quite large. And it was.

He was on a balcony overlooking a large pit, at the bottom of which were a very large set of doors that were in the ground.

Kodi saw a button nearby, and pressed it.

An alarm, accompanied by some more flashing red lights, sounded throughout the large room, and soon Kodi saw the large doors open. It was a very long way down. At the very bottom he could see a lift coming up, so Kodi located the ladder that led down, slid down, and waited patiently for his ride to arrive.

It took so long that Kodi could've fallen asleep, and he half wished he could. He was so tired, and only now did he figure out that he had to go all the way across the base to get to whatever the Lambda Complex was. This certainly wasn't going to be easy. At least he wouldn't have to fight any more of the soldiers.

Kodi stepped onto the platform, and it took him down into the depths of wherever it was that he was going. It was not too long of a ride down. The platform deposited him into a huge tunnel that curved ever so slightly to the right, and about ten feet away from him was one of the same trains that he'd seen in the training exercise.

Between that and him, though, was a new type of monster Kodi hadn't yet seen. It looked like a dog that'd been mutilated horribly. It was a sickly yellow color, had only one back leg, and looked like it'd been cut in half and had its eyes sewn back onto the flat thing that was its head.

It didn't even try to attack him, like almost everything else in this place had, it just stood there calmly, it even yelped a little bit, kind of like a puppy. Although Kodi didn't know how, as he couldn't actually see a mouth.

It then began to apparently grow angry, as its yelps turned more into a growl. It then began to shake, and all of the sudden, a white shockwave flew out from around it, and hit Kodi. He was far enough away that he only stumbled, but he was sure that if he'd have been closer, he would've been in a world of hurt right now.

It then ran right up to him, and began to shake again. Kodi kicked it in the face, and then stabbed it with the crowbar.

Replacing the crowbar with the machine gun, he walked over to the train that really wasn't a train. It was more like a smallish rectangular platform with a control panel at one end.

Kodi got on it, and wracked his brain, trying to remember how to start the thing. He remembered soon enough, and was on his way, travelling nicely down the tunnel. It was nice not to have to walk everywhere. He saw even more of the dog like creatures in the way of the train, but they didn't stand a chance, and were run over if they didn't get out of the way.

Kodi, wanting to naturally go faster, put the train up to maximum speed. And he instantly regretted it.

The train took off, flying down the tunnel. Kodi only barely managed to hold on, and when he tried to slow it back down again, nothing happened. All he could do was hang on. Soon enough, the tunnel stopped, and ahead of him Kodi could see a lake of green liquid.

He remembered from his training that it was called toxic waste, or radiation. While he didn't know what that was, he did know it was something you definitely did not want to touch, let alone go swimming in, as he was about to do.

He heard the loud crackling in his ears, and remembered that the suit had something called a Geiger Counter on it, that would make said crackling noise when he got too close to radiation.

The train crashed into the bumper that was just before the lake, and Kodi was sent sailing into the air. He saw several large pipes in front of him, one of which was open. And he looked to be heading right for it. He adjusted his path to make sure he'd land inside the pipe.

Kodi did land in the pipe, and went rolling along in an awkward way thanks to his weapon holsters and stuff. That was when he realized. He no longer had his machine gun.

Kodi got to his feet and walked back to the mouth of the pipe. And sure enough, there was said gray gun, floating happily in the middle of the green radioactive waste.

Kodi cursed and threw all the ammo for said gun into the lake as well. There was no point in keeping ammo for a gun he didn't have.

By some insane stroke of luck, the closet Kodi exited the pipe in had another of the black shotguns handing on a shelf in it, this one with a strap. Kodi hurriedly picked it up, and found two boxes of shot gun ammo, and some more grenades.

With a relish Kodi never thought he'd have for guns, he loaded up the shotgun, and added the spare shells and grenades to his formerly meager ammo collection. Feeling safer already, he proceeded out the closet door, and found himself overlooking another lake of toxic waste, this one far bigger than the last. He noticed that the walls seemed to be curving inward.

He also noticed another lift, sitting happily just above the lake of toxic waste, about twenty feet away from him.

Only a small thin pipe provided access to it, so Kodi had to balance carefully on it to reach the other side.

He made it with only a few slips, and was soon riding up into whatever the lovely world of Half-Life had waiting for him now.

Kodi arrived at another small room. He looked out and saw a huge curved wall in front of him. He was in a large circular chamber, another lake of toxic waste probably at least two hundred feet down. Only the smallest of metal walkways ran along the edge of the circular platform, going about a quarter of the way around before there was a bridge that ran across the gap, and to the smaller but still giant circular chamber in the middle.

And there were more of the shock-wave things on the walkway. Kodi removed his almost forgotten pistol, and took careful aim at them, killing every one before they even knew he was there.

He put another clip into said pistol, and frowned when he realized he only had one more extra.

At least he had the shotgun.

Kodi walked carefully around the metal walkway, to the bridge, and across it. There was a door built into the wall, and it lead into a small room in which there was another door, but this one was closed. There was a red lever on the wall beside him, and Kodi pulled it.

The door behind him shut, and the other opened.

A deafening clanging erupted into being. A zombie appeared in front of him, and Kodi had no problem shooting it.

Kodi was inside of a small curving hall way, with metal walls on either side of him. He guessed there must be a chamber on the inside of the wall on his right, as that seemed to be where the loud clanging was coming from.

The form of a scientist appeared, and Kodi rushed up to the man. He had a huge hole in his stomach, and was only barely breathing, slumped up against the wall.

"Fire the rocket engine… destroy the damn things before they grow any larger… AHH"

Kodi didn't know what that was, but the man just screamed then died. He slipped the shotgun into his hands, the feel of the weapon doing nothing to comfort him. The guy had said something in here was growing larger, and Kodi got scared. More scared than he had possibly been yet. The curved corridor ended, and there was another door on his right, a red lever beside this one as well.

Kodi pulled the lever here too, and felt his heart beat faster, if that was even possible. The door revealed a small control room, similar to the one back at the beginning of the game, before the whole incident had begun. There was a thick looking window on the right, below it a red button, a sign below that reading in black letters TEST FIRE. There were three lights near it. The two to the right were blue and red, and below them it read oxygen and fuel, to the left of the button was a yellow light that said power. A scientist was busy doing something at a control panel, and Kodi watched the man work feverishly, checking the window to make sure whatever was out there wasn't looking. He seemed to finish up, and ran over to the test fire button.

That was when it came in.

The thing just burst through the window. It was like one huge, long tentacle, a huge claw the size of his shotgun on the end of it. It looked like a really long neck. It had green scaly skin, and one small red eye just before the huge black claw.

It slammed into the scientist, knocking the man back and into the metal wall behind him.

It rushed forward again, stabbing its claw through the man's back, while he screamed in panic and in pain.

"NO! GET IT OFF ME!"

That helped Kodi break out of his fear induced trance, and pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The pellets ricocheted off of its skin, and Kodi hear them clang as they impacted the metal around the room. Kodi cocked the shotgun, and aimed for the little red eye.

He shot that, and the monster blinked rapidly, a green blood squirting out. It pulled out of the room, taking the scientist, still kicking and screaming with it. Kodi ran past the window, and realized that there was not just one, but three tentacles in the chamber. It was fairly large circular chamber, similar to that of the test chamber, with the metal walkways leading around it. There were two doors Kodi could see, one on the bottom floor, and one on the second to last floor. There looked to be four floors. The real floor, a second one, the one Kodi was on, than a fourth one, one level above Kodi. The chamber itself was probably over 100 feet in length, if one was to measure it from top to bottom. This meant that the tentacles had to be nigh on that high as well, since they were coming out of a hole in the bottom of the chamber, and that man had said they were growing larger.

Kodi, who was not sure where his courage was coming from, ran up and slammed his hand down on the test fire button. All he got was an infuriating buzz that seemed to say, 'Ha-ha, you lose.'

He pushed it again, and again got a buzz. One of the tentacle things looked his way, and Kodi rushed out of the room. He walked down another small hallway, and stopped to shoot one of the annoying rope-tongue things. He then climbed up a small ladder to the fourth floor, and the shadow of a security guard nearly scared him to death.

"Be quiet," the man whispered, "These things hear us."

"What?" Kodi asked, making sure to keep his voice low.

"These things, they only have good hearing, they can't see you."

And sure enough, since no one had been making any noise, the things had stopped their annoying clanging against the wall, instead howling with an extremely low pitched voice, sounding almost like a wolf mourning a lost pack mate.

"How do we kill them?"

"The only thing I would think of would be to fire the rocket engine."

Kodi assumed that the button he'd been trying to press earlier that said test fire, was probably what did that.

"I tried that, but it didn't work."

"The rocket needs oxygen, fuel, and power. I'm assuming the lights weren't on?"

"No, they weren't." Kodi acknowledged, "How do we turn them on?"

The security guard only pointed to the nearby door, which led to the chamber in which the tentacles were growing.

"The two doors down there lead to the wind turbine, the fuel and oxygen, and the power generator. You must turn all of those on to fire the rocket."

Kodi walked thoughtfully towards the door. To the right of the door, pressed up against the wall was a huge crate of grenades, with at least fifteen or twenty of said explosives. How they got there was weird, but it didn't really matter to Kodi at the moment. He took one out, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the chamber, watching it fall before it exploded in mid-air.

The tentacles swiped blindly at it with their huge beaks.

Kodi smiled a little bit, when he realized there was something he could do. He took off all of his weapons holsters, as he would need to be running very fast for this, and that was something he just could not do with those things flapping all over the place.

He only took his pistol, holding the small gun in his hand. It had only seventeen bullets in it, but hey, it was better than nothing.

"I need your help." Kodi said.

"With what?"

"Throw grenades for me while I run to the doors."

"You're going in there?"

"I have to."

"Alright, you ready?" the security guard asked, picking up several grenades and piling them at his feet.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Kodi replied.

The guard primed a grenade, and threw it into the chamber, already another in his hand.

As soon as that one exploded, Kodi leapt off the walkway, letting his suit take the damage from the fall. The tentacles swiped at the place the grenade had exploded, before turning on him. Another grenade exploded, and their attention was quickly drawn away, allowing Kodi to make it to the first door safely.

"Alright, I'm in!" He shouted, struggling to be heard over the noise the monsters were making as they pounded away.

"Okay! Good luck!"

Kodi turned and followed the narrow walkway to another set of doors. He had to pull another red lever get through. He came out back outside the chamber, and he saw the path way he'd used to get in it originally. He was just a bit lower than that one.

Kodi walked through the dull gray boring concrete hall ways, following two pipes, one colored blue, one colored red. He assumed those were for the oxygen and fuel, so he hoped that by following the pipes, he'd make it to where he was supposed to turn this stuff on at. Eventually, the pipes led to a very secure looking metal door, and when Kodi tried to open it he found it was locked. He sighed and looked around. He saw another grated metal thing, and walked over to it.

It was a ladder, descending down at least fifteen feet, into what looked like more sewers. Kodi easily pulled it off, and climbed down, which wasn't so easy because of the darned pistol he had. He supposed he shouldn't say that, because it was about time he run into some nasty slimy monster thing.

Kodi dropped into the dank sewer tunnels, and followed them along until he found another ladder. He took this one up a short ways and came out in a small closet like room. Inside of which there was a zombie.

He fired two shots into the crab thing, and that problem was taken care of. He followed a narrow hall way down into another of the now slightly annoying large metal chambers. At the bottom of it was a giant fan, which Kodi assumed was the wind turbine. Two metal walkways ran around the circumference of the chamber, one on his level, and one accessible only from the ladder on the far side of the room. Kodi took the ladder down, and only then discovered that the button to turn on the fan was on the bottom.

Kodi seriously hoped he'd beat this because he was tired of the stupidity of some of the designs in this game. The button being below the fan meant he'd have to press the button, then run across a thin metal walkway, climb back up the ladder whilst avoiding the giant fan blades of death, all while trying not to fall into the bottomless cavern below him.

Kodi decided to just wing it, and slammed his palm into the button. He hurriedly climbed back up the ladder with a few seconds to spare. Now he had nowhere to go but up. He put a hand out into the now rather strong wind the fan was making, and the pistol in his hand flew from his grip and went flying up until it hit the top of the room, where Kodi could see a large air vent. He leapt into the air. It was a cool experience, almost like falling up. Cool that is, until he slammed into the top of the room himself.

"Owww…." He muttered, the sound lost to the wind the fan was creating.

He managed to make his way over to his pistol, grabbing onto it, then kicking out the air vent cover and dropping down inside.

He crawled through those until coming to another room, where he could see a control panel and two buttons that read oxygen and fuel.

He kicked out the grate and dropped into the room, only then noticing the three zombies. It took two bullets for each, taking him down to just nine left in his pistol, which would have 17 in it when fully loaded, hence the name Glock 17.

Kodi turned both of the buttons on, and with a positive beep, something began humming and Kodi was on his way. A ladder took him up to the door where he'd first started, and soon he was back into the chamber containing the tentacles.

"Hey! Where's the next door at?"

"Below you!"

The guard threw another grenade, this time making sure it exploded in mid-air, high above Kodi's head. He didn't have time to run to the ladder, so he just jumped down, again letting the suit take any damage. He didn't feel anything, so that was good.

Kodi walked through some more boring corridors before coming to a large elevator shaft. He pushed the button for the elevator that was more like a lift, and waited patiently. It soon descended from the ceiling, and Kodi was on his way. Down through the grated floor he could see another pool of toxic waste. Suddenly the elevator stopped.

It began to sway back and forth ominously. Kodi looked around for a way out. He saw it in the form of a ladder attached to the wall that was ten feet away. The elevator gave out, and plunged down into the toxic waste just as Kodi jumped out. He impacted the wall with a thud, and only barely managed to grasp the ladder. His gun was not so fortunate, and it was soon sent to the same fate as the elevator. Kodi cursed. He really needed to be more careful. Of course, he'd probably now run into some giant alien thing that would kill him because he didn't have a gun to defend himself with.

All he ran into was a scientist however, who helpfully pointed him towards the generator he was there to turn on. All that he had to do was press two buttons whilst balancing carefully on a one foot wide metal ramp that went up at a forty-five degree angle, which stood over a pit of toxic waste that was only about fifty feet down.

He heard the generator hum to life, and proceeded the long journey back up to the rocket chamber. Along the way, the scientist said something dumb along the lines of 'someone has restored all power.'

Kodi got angry but quickly brushed it off. He arrived back at the bottom of the test chamber, and the tentacles were now eerily quiet.

"Okay! I'm ready to come back up!"

The guard acknowledged him, and threw two grenades into the chamber, both exploding high above his head. This gave Kodi enough time to climb the ladder half way up. The guard threw another two grenades at the bottom of the chamber, and continued climbing. The metal walkway the security guard was on was now only a few feet away. One tentacle was not fooled so easily, and slammed down on the top of the ladder, easily breaking it off. The whole ladder began to collapse, and Kodi kicked off and reached for the platform. He realized he wasn't going to make it, and how long of a drop it was to the floor of the chamber.

_So this is how I die. _Kodi thought.

The guard had other plans, and threw himself out onto the walkway, not caring about the tentacle that was coming down on him. He grasped Kodi's hand just as the beak went clean through him. It retracted again, rearing back for another hit.

With strength so amazing Kodi was absolutely astonished, the guard managed to still lift him up and literally throw him into the room beyond. He was then impaled again, but not before Kodi saw the two grenades in his hand.

The tentacle intended to take him down to its mouth, deep below, in the tunnels underneath the chamber.

"HEHEHE EAT THIS YOU OUTER SPACE OCTOPUS!" he cried, pulling the pins on both grenades and holding them up. The blast incinerated him, but it hardly fazed the tentacles. Kodi, now re-armed with his shotgun, had something that would faze them, though. He slammed his palm down on the fire button, and immediately and alarm sounded.

Kodi covered his eyes and waited.

The rocket engines that poked down from the ceiling in the chamber burst out a brilliant blue flame, firing down with all their might on the creatures below.

The things howled in agony as the flames burnt away their flesh. With one last almighty roar and blast of flames, the rocket finally stopped.

There was only the sound of something burning deep down underneath the chamber. Kodi had nowhere else to go than down. So he descended into the twisting dark tunnel that the things had come up out of, and realized just how monstrous they had to have been to grow up through all of this. He had to activate the flashlight for most of the journey, but eventually it led him to a drop off.

It went straight down, at the very bottom a pit of water.

Kodi looked down. He couldn't go back up, so he jumped.

The water was warm, which wasn't surprising, since the rocket had just been blasting down into it. Kodi swam down, as he saw a tunnel. He swam past a giant thing that looked like it'd been the brain of the tentacles. Just when he thought he was about to run out of air, he surfaced on a small platform which overlooked a river of toxic waste that was flowing quite rapidly. There were a few pipes that followed along it, and Kodi was about to step out onto the pipes when something caught his eye.

On the ground was a silver revolver, beside it, two small yellow boxes, each containing six bullets for the revolver. The gun itself was already loaded, which was easy to check because revolvers were the one type of gun Kodi recognized, aside from the shotgun which was slung on his back.

He replaced the revolver in the holster that had once been for the Glock, and added the bullets to his steadily growing supply. Now he had plenty of shotgun and revolver ammo, as well as two grenades.

Kodi followed the narrow pipes until he came to one large pipe. A hatch was open that led down into the pipe, and he climbed down the small ladder into the rather spacious area. The pipe only went one way, as the other was blocked off by a metal grate that looked much too thick to dent even for his explosives. He walked along the tall pipe for a while, until it dead ended.

"What now?"

Kodi's question was soon answered. He heard an ominous creaking, then, with a thunderous crash, the pipe gave way.

...

Well, this is now the longest chapter. I think it's rather good, and it was rather fun to write. As the next one will be, as it's on to boss number two! I do have one question to ask, though. Do you think I should write all the way through Half-Life? I don't know, because that would be about 12 more chapters of it, with maybe 3 or 4 more afterwards. I have two endings in mind, one going all the way to the end of HL, and one stopping HL in about 4 or 5 chapters. Both involve Balto coming in to help his son... but that's about all I can say. So, what are your opinions on this? Go to the end of Half-Life, or stop?

And another thing, unless Mike and Mojo are reading this like five times a day, which is admittedly possible, I know that more people are reading this. If some, or even one of you would leave even just a short review, I'd greatly appreciate it.

-ANonymous


	20. Chapter 20: Power Up

Chapter 20 – Power Up

Kodi was lucky. The pipe had collapsed into a sort of slide like thing, so he'd only slid down it, fallen through the ceiling tiles, crashed down on a rather wimpy wooden table, hurting himself a lot in the process. At least there had been some health kits on said table, along with some revolver ammo.

Kodi had fallen into a small storage room, a lot of boxes in that area contained nothing more than some random items such as tape, and paper, even the occasional tooth brush. What he had found were two of the box explosives, the ones that would attach to the wall, then they would emit the thin stream of blue light called a laser. They were presently deactivated, so Kodi took them with him. There was only one way out of the room, so Kodi followed it.

The hall led him to a giant room, almost as big as the one the tentacles had been growing in.

The ceiling in the hall he stood in was only a little bit taller than seven feet, but the height outside had to be at least thirty feet. There were three huge tunnels in the room, one leading left, one leading right, and one going off in a direction that Kodi could not see.

He also saw a rather large glassless window, it was too high up off the ground to jump to, and it looked like there were some important controls in there. Across from him was another smaller tunnel, the same height as the one he just left.

Kodi entered the large room and soon realized that he had made it to the rail system that one of the scientists had talked about, as he saw the same train care as before parked inside one of the large tunnels.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and out another of the large tunnels, two soldiers came backing out of, firing away with their automatic guns.

Kodi lifted his revolver, but soon realized they weren't even firing at him. In fact, they didn't even know he was there.

A huge monster, at least twenty feet tall, and about that wide came rumbling out after them, each time it walked the ground shook a little. It was as big as a huge boulder, and looked about as tough as one too, judging from the way the soldiers bullets bounced off of its bluish black skin. It had a singular red eye in the middle of its chest, with what looked like a nose poking out of it.

The two soldiers tossed some grenades at its feet, but even those only succeeded in slowing the monster down for a few seconds. It stomped right up to them, lifted its arms which were as thick as tree trunks, and let loose a new attack Kodi had not yet seen.

The flames it unleashed were so hot the soldiers simply vaporized and one would've never known they were there if it wasn't for the tinny ashes floating around. The monster, looking bored, turned away from Kodi and just stood there. Kodi thought about what to do.

He slowly snuck over to the train, and tried to activate it.

"Track power is down." A weird sounding male voice said from somewhere.

It echoed around the whole room, immediately drawing the blue monsters attention.

It Kodi in the eyes, or rather, eye in the monsters case, and thundered toward him.

"Hi." Kodi said rather meekly. He knew that if he didn't do something fast, he'd be fried, as he doubted even the HEV suit could hold up to that kind of heat.

The sound of a machine gun firing away came from the control room window reached Kodi's ears, and bullets began bouncing off the monster, immediately drawing its attention.

He saw a security guard up in the room, firing away.

"Go! I'll keep it distracted!" the man shouted over the roar of his gun. Kodi didn't need to be told twice. He immediately ran for the other smaller tunnel, and increased his speed when he heard the monster unleash its flame throwers from hell on the control room. Kodi ran through the hall, following the sign that pointed him towards said room. He almost ran right into one of the electric aliens, and quickly shot it before it could do the same to him.

He finally saw the door to the control room, just over a small bridge, below which was another path that lead, according to the sign, to a generator.

Kodi burst through the doors, and saw the security guard that'd probably just saved him with his back shoved up against the wall, as far away from the window as could be.

His head turned to look at Kodi, and he didn't know how he knew, but somehow Kodi just did.

"Kodi, you're alright. You should not have left like that, you scared us beyond reason!"

Kodi didn't know what to say.

"Who are you?"

"Your father."

"Dad? How'd you get in here?"

"I learned about Steel, and I know it was not you who attacked Dusty. We followed your trail, and I found that cave."

"Where are mom and the others?" Kodi asked worriedly.

"They're safe back at Nome." Balto answered.

"Dad you shouldn't be here! I did this to save you! Now you're here trying to save me, and possibly getting yourself killed."

"I can't let you die without helping. I love you, son, so does your mother. If anything happened to you because trying to save me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Now, let's focus on taking Half-Life down. I know what we have to do. We must get down to the generator room, and clear something up down there, as that's what caused the generator to stop working. The soldiers you just saw coming out of that tunnel deactivated the generator. It's down that huge tunnel, where the monster is."

Kodi shook his head. "Dad, I can't let you do-"

"I'm already here, son. There's nothing we can do now except win."

"Then promise me you'll let me do most of the fighting. You don't even have an HEV suit."

"Alright Kodi, but I'm not just going to sit back."

The two travelled down the other hall way, following the signs that read generator room. They had to shoot some more electric monsters and head things, but it wasn't too hard to do between Balto's machine gun and Kodi's shotgun.

Soon they came to a tight circular chamber, with toxic waste at the bottom.

It had a ladder going up to another level, inside of which Kodi could hear soldiers radios.

"Let me do this." Kodi whispered, and Balto nodded.

Kodi slung his shotgun over his back, and climbed the ladder up, and peered into the room, which was filled with many a crate.

Kodi held his revolver in a way he hoped looked threatening, and jumped in.

"We've got-"

Kodi fired the gun, and it ended up hitting him in the face. Or it would have if he didn't have his HEV helmet on. As it were, it just bounced harmlessly off of the protective material. The bullet from said gun went right through the soldiers head in front of him, and another one behind that.

"We're good."

Kodi heard his dad climbing up the ladder, and Balto appeared at Kodi's side a moment later.

"Good job. Let's keep moving."

Both of them continued down a corridor, and then turned right.

"How'd-"

"Squad, we've got hostiles!"

Balto and Kodi looked at each other, then at the room they'd found themselves in.

It was a large storage area, a small ramp in front of them leading into the middle of the room, which looked like a bridge. On the bridge was a stack of sand bags, behind said sand bags was a soldier. Behind him was a ramp that led up to a door, and back into more corridors. To their left and right, were two small balconies that overlooked the whole area.

Kodi ran forward, Balto staying back to cover, since he didn't have the suit.

Kodi shot the soldier, and immediately three more ran out of the door above him.

He heard the sound of a grenade being launched, and immediately dove for cover behind the sand bags. The explosive that his dad had shot from his gun came down right on the soldiers, and it killed all of them.

Kodi picked himself up, and Balto came out of hiding.

"Thanks."

They continued on up the ramp and into the corridor that the soldiers had just come out of. The problem was fairly simple. All they had to do to get the generator working again was move a few boxes out of the way of a pump in a flooded room, and then it worked. Or it would, once it was turned on. Now all they had to do was run out with the big blue monster and have someone actually turn on said generator.

They made their way back to the control room. The monster was in the middle of the room, seeming to somehow be asleep, as the glowing red its eye had once shown was now more relaxed and didn't seem to be glowing as much.

"I'll turn it on." Kodi volunteered.

"No, if you die, this game will end, so it'd be better if I did this."

"But-"

"No arguing. I'm going."

Before he could say anything else, he found his dads machine gun shoved into his unprepared hands. By the time he even got a grip on it, his dad had already jumped out of the control room window and to the ground about eight feet below. Balto began to run towards the large tunnel, and he heard the monsters thundering footsteps following him.

It felt good to be doing something natural to him, running, even if it wasn't in his own body. The tunnel curved around and revealed a huge square room, two large boxes on either side. A large red coil was on top of each box, and Balto saw a lever at the end of the room. He ran towards it, and pulled it down.

The monster followed him right in. Balto turned around, and saw it about ready to unleash the flaming jets on him. Then the generator started. The monster stood right in between the two giant red coils, and blue electric lashed out from them and cut right through the monster. It fell over in about ten different pieces. Balto noticed a small door, and it took him to a hallway that led around the electricity, so the same thing wouldn't happen to him. He walked back through the tunnel, and saw Kodi waiting for him.

"You did it! Where's the monster?"

"It's dead. It went between the blue energy stuff, and that killed it."

Now that track power was on, they could use the train to escape. Kodi handed his dad his gun back, and they both jumped on the train that was more like a platform, and started it up.

Kodi had to go back up to the control room to rotate the turn table to get the train into the proper tunnel, before taking off again. The rail tunnel turned left, then right, and then the train came to an automatic halt at a red and white striped gate, a security guard to the left of it ready to give them the orders for their next mission.

...

I know how I'm going to end this story now. There will be two more Half-Life chapters, and I'll make the battle against the HL Assassins the final battle for Half-Life. Then there will be the actual final battle, which will include a little bit more of Half-Life, then take place back in Balto & Kodi's actual time. So all in all it'll probably be about six more chapters, give or take a couple.

Until next time,

-ANonymous


	21. Chapter 21: On a Rail, P1

Chapter 21 – On a Rail

The masters were worried, especially the leader. His former name had been Shadow… but that name had been lost with all the time he'd been alive. They saw how well Kodi was performing in Half-Life, and it scared them. Barely anyone had made it past the tentacle creatures, and those that had, likely died with the blue monster that Balto had just killed. Only four others had ever made it this far, and only two had made actually made it to the rocket. Now Balto was in there to help his son, and there was nothing Shadow or the rest of his little group could do. Except shut down the game completely.

If they did that, though, there was a possibility that all of the prisoners that had been captured from the game could be set free, and the masters powers, which were immortality, and the ability to time-travel, could be taken away.

Shadow actually felt bad for Kodi. He rather reminded Shadow of his former self, before all of this had started so long ago. Back in his former time, Shadow had family, as well as the three other masters who'd been his friends. The humans of that time had gotten quite far into experimenting, and had taken Shadow's mate to test something. It was supposed to be simple, but it had ended up killing her. From that day on, Shadow had vowed to get revenge on those humans. They'd experimented on him, and he had actually had to play the Half-Life game. At that time, it did not work well, and it ended malfunctioned, and ended up giving him the immortality he had now.

Since he'd been in there so long, Shadow was well educated in how to work the human technology, and helped his three remaining friends, that had not been killed, to gain the same powers as he had. Even though they were then immortal, they still could not get revenge. The scientists had stuff that could destroy them down to every last atom.

The way their immortality worked, was that they could not age, and could not be injured. Any injury inflicted upon them would just regenerate. So say he was shot, the bullet would hit him, but then it would heal so fast that no one would ever know. You could not regenerate atoms, however, and consequently they found the need to leave that time with the hope of someday returning to that time and exacting their revenge.

Unfortunately, another malfunction had occurred, and it had tied their powers to the Half-Life game. So they were forced to take a copy of it with them, to maintain what abilities they had. Then they'd easily stolen an advanced virus, and gone to Steel's time. They'd released it on the humans there, and it had killed every single one, leaving just animals. Then they'd taken that time as their own, making a base in the Nevada desert. Since they were so familiar with technology of their time, it was quite easy to take things from their time and bring it back, eventually creating themselves a nice place to live. It'd taken many years, but for them it did not matter – they were immortal. The dogs of that time were then enslaved to them, and the masters had brought robots, automated dog things from their time, to keep the control of the population. This had taken a while as well, but eventually they had created a society that kept them in power for good.

Then they'd edited Half-Life, to make it much harder to beat. Occasionally, they would let dogs try to beat it, but none had ever come remotely close. Although Kodi wasn't close yet, nowhere near it, he certainly had good instinct and quick wits. If anyone had a chance at winning, he did. And that was what worried them. Especially with Balto there to help… it could certainly get ugly.

. . . .

"Freeman, I've been waiting for you. A scientist told me to give you a message. You're supposed to take this old rail system up to some kind of satellite delivery rocket. I don't know where it is exactly, and the old guy was so worried about gettin outta here alive he didn't tell me. The main thing is, the military aborted the launch, so when you do find it you'll have to get up to the control room and launch it yourself. He said something about the Lambda team needing the satellite in orbit if they were ever gonna clean up this mess."

Kodi and Balto processed what had just been told to them, and eventually nodded.

"Thank you."

"If you'll wait just one moment, I'll open this gate, and then join you."

The guard pulled down the lever, and the red gate opened up, giving Kodi the freedom to move the train forward once again. After the guard hopped on, he did so, and it took him to a giant platform. The train came to an automatic halt on said platform, and it began to lower, spinning them around as it went.

Finally reaching the bottom, Kodi saw a huge tunnel out in front of them. The rails below were flooded with water, making them invisible. Somewhere in the maze of tunnels, a dripping of water could be heard, echoing throughout the entire place, indicating that these tunnels really were huge.

Kodi pressed the lever forward again, and the train moved through the water with little difficulty. The train moved along, and except for the noise of its engine working, everything was silent. The tunnel eventually raised up, and took them out of the water, showing the grey metal of the tracks once again.

These took them along, and Kodi was quite grateful for the break in fighting. After two huge alien monsters in a row, it was nice. As they travelled along, they soon learned about the little signs that would help the train adjust tracks when they came to a crossroads. Kodi took off his suits helmet, and enjoyed the fresh air as it blew against his face. Actually, it wasn't fresh air, as it'd been stuck down in these tunnels for who knew how long, but still, it felt good.

Eventually the train came to a curve, and Kodi adjusted the lever as they went past it, to make sure the train would indeed go down said curve. As soon as they turned, though, on each side of the rail were small concrete platforms, one holding a few of the three legged aliens, and one holding one of the two legged alligator like things. Kodi whipped out his shotgun, and immediately shot the thing while Balto and the other guard killed the others. The aliens didn't even get a shot off.

A huge crane hook thing hung down from the ceiling, blocking the train from going any further. It came to an automatic halt in front the hook. When the train engine died, there was an almost complete silence, only the faint whistle of wind could be heard as it blew through the huge complex.

"I think there's a switch to move the crane up there." Balto said, and pointed to a control booth to the right. It was about eight feet off the ground they were standing on, and there was a walkway extending from it that led down to another section of the tunnels that had yet to be explored.

Kodi tossed his gun to the floor of the train, and then leapt up, latching on to the small metal guard rail that was attached to the walkway. He heaved himself up, and into the control room. There was a crab creature in there, and it jumped at him. Kodi, suddenly feeling quite irritated, grabbed it and tossed it to the ground in front of his dad and their other travelling companion.

The guard shot it twice with his pistol, before putting said weapon away in his holster.

"That'll look nice in my trophy room." He said in a cocky tone.

Balto and Kodi just looked at each other as if to say, 'Who in their right mind would put a body in a trophy room?'

Balto had been right about the control booth, though. Kodi pushed a simple lever, and with a loud grunt of old machinery, the hook slowly travelled out of the path of the train. Kodi noticed a box in the room, which was full of a number of green packages. Kodi picked one up and examined it.

It was an explosive, similar to dynamite. One would take out the explosive charge, then use the simple radio detonator in the pack to detonate the explosive. Kodi took two for himself, and tossed another down to Balto.

Kodi jumped back over the guard rail and stepped onto the train, reclaiming his shotgun and making sure it was fully loaded before starting up the train once again.

This tunnel took them up another one of the annoying spinning elevator things, before leading them to a crossroads. There were two tracks, both turning to the left. It looked like they went into the same area, and then combined after that into one track.

There were three platforms. One on the right, one in between the two tracks, and one on the left. On the left side was a group of five or six of the electricity aliens, and on the middle and right were several soldiers.

Kodi immediately stopped the train upon hearing the gunfire, and waited for the two sides to battle it out before slowly peeking his head around the corner, but not before he re-attached his HEV helmet. He did not want to get shot in the head, that would not be good.

All of the aliens were dead, as were all of the soldiers on the middle platform. Three more still stood on the far right, as if they knew Kodi was coming and were daring him to approach.

"There's three soldiers that I can see… " Kodi informed his group, "Should I take care of them?"

"No, we'll do it together."

They made a quick plan of how to get through this obstacle, and after a few minutes of quiet talking, they put their plan into action.

Kodi hopped off and onto the thin walkway that ran on either side of the tracks. His shotgun on his shoulder, and revolver in hand, he edged along until he came to the track where the aliens had been. After Balto heard the first shots, he would drive the train to the next track down, and would be up close to the soldiers, and hopefully they wouldn't know he was there until it was too late. Kodi whirled around the corner and immediately fired a shot. It didn't hit anything, but it was enough to draw their attention. The soldiers immediately fired back, and bullets began hitting the ground all around Kodi. He saw a soldier about to launch a grenade, but Balto was faster.

He drove the train around at lightning speed, he and the other guard opening fire immediately. Each of them got one soldier. The third one attempted to run into a door that had been hidden from view, but Kodi shot him before he could even get close.

"Nice shot." The guard complimented Kodi.

He was walking across the platform when he saw another soldier that had been hidden behind a crate. He had a desert eagle in one hand, and a small knife in the other.

"Dad! Look out!" Kodi cried, and the soldier charged Balto.

Balto turned around in time to receive a fist to the face, which sent him on his back. The soldier aimed his gun at the other guard and shot him in the chest, and the force of the round being fired point blank knocked the guy off the train and onto the electrified rails. He was fried before he could even make a sound.

Kodi raised his revolver again, but the soldier tossed his knife and it hit Kodi's right hand and stuck. The gun fell out of his hands and onto the track behind him. He pulled the knife out, and was grateful that it hadn't gone in too deep because of the suit. Balto had recovered by now, and he wrapped his arms around the guys feet and yanked, causing the man to fall off of the train and onto Kodi's platform. Balto got to his feet, and the soldier rolled onto his back and shot Balto in the chest. He was blown off the train and onto the platform containing the dead soldiers.

Balto had given Kodi enough time to get his shotgun off his shoulder, but not ready to aim. The soldier rolled onto his stomach again and shot Kodi's gun, and that was sent out of his hands too.

"Remember me?" The soldier asked, getting to his feet. It was the same soldier Kodi had knocked off the walkway back before he'd fought the tentacle things. He recognized the man by the look of pure hatred on his face.

The soldier aimed his desert eagle at Kodi and pulled the trigger. All he got was a clicking sound, indicating the gun was empty. He tossed it away and ran at Kodi.

When he was close enough, he jumped in an attempt to knock Kodi off the platform and onto the electric rail. But he had forgotten about the crowbar. Kodi drew it out at the last second and put the pointed end forward. The man got it right through his stomach.

Kodi yanked it out and shoved the man away, he collapsed, his back to the wall. The soldier still had one more trick up his sleeve, though. With a flick of each arm, two small pistols appeared in his hands. Using the last of his strength, he raised both arms and shot, alternating fire between the pistols. Kodi stumbled back with each bullet that hit him, until he had backed into the wall opposite the soldier. He kept firing, cursing as loud as he possibly could until the guns clicked dry.

Kodi's legs gave out, and he fell down in a sitting position, his back against the wall and his head hanging limp.

The soldier blew out an unsteady breath, and his arms fell to his sides. He was done.

...

Well, that's that. By my count people, only four more chapters to go. I was going to have this chapter in one whole thing, but I decided to split it up. I stopped here just because it's a good place to stop.

-ANonymous


	22. Chapter 22: On a Rail, P2

Chapter 22 – On a Rail, Part 2

Balto slowly lifted himself off the ground. The pain in his chest was almost unbearable, but it wasn't half as bad as it could've been. His armor vest thing had somehow stopped that guy's bullet before it'd gotten into his body. It still left a nasty bruise though.

Balto heard the sound of two pistols being fired off in rapid succession, and got up just in time to see Kodi collapse to the ground. Rage filling him, Balto picked up his dropped gun and took aim at the injured soldier. He didn't stop firing until the clip ran dry. It was more than enough to finally kill him.

He then dropped the gun and ran over to Kodi, taking one of his shoulders and helping him to sit up properly. Balto couldn't see Kodi's face through the helmet of the suit, but he supposed that his son was still alive since the game hadn't ended yet.

"Kodi? You still alright?"

"Uhhh…" Kodi moaned, "I'm alright… but that hurt. A lot."

Balto let out a small laugh. "I'm sure it did." He was actually impressed at how tough the suit was. It could take about thirty pistol bullets and still keep the person inside alive. Simply amazing. Balto wished that they had a suit that could fit a dog, because if they did, it'd be hard not to take one for himself when he went back to Nome. If he ever went back.

"I need to find a health station and power station though, that took a lot." Kodi only had 69 health left, and 19 extra power. If he didn't find help soon, he'd be out of power, then bullets would hurt a lot more.

Balto helped Kodi to his feet and handed him back his two guns, which were carefully retrieved off the rail tracks. Both of them then got on the train, and continued on. They travelled along for quite a while without having to shoot anything, and as soon as they were both completely relaxed, their next challenge greeted them when they rounded a corner.

It was an extremely long rail tunnel, and at the very end of it was a soldier, in control of a very big gun. He shot something at them. It looked like one huge bullet that glowed white. It was a rocket launcher. Kodi immediately stopped the train and pulled his dad down to the left, where there was a small indentation in the concrete wall. The rocket flew over them, and impacted the wall behind them with the loudest explosion either of them had ever heard. It left a rather large hole in the wall.

Kodi noticed a pit of stagnant green water in front of him.

"Any idea how to take that guy out?" Balto asked.

Kodi thought for a moment, his hands dropping idly to his side. His left hand hit the small explosive pack that was still clipped onto his belt.

Kodi smiled a little, and then took the two explosives he had out. Balto looked at him, then nodded his understanding.

"Nice."

Kodi took out the two charges and gently reached out and placed them on the train. He then peeked his head around the corner, trying to get an idea of how long he'd need to wait to blow up his charges if the train was going at medium speed. He reached out to start the train, but instead took off all of the grenades he'd had, which totaled only three, and placed them on the train too. Then he started it, and off it went.

He held a detonator for each charge in both hands, and peeked around the corner to see how far the train had gone.

"Half way there…" Kodi said in anticipation. He waited another five seconds then peeked around again. It was there.

Kodi pressed both buttons at the same time, and dropped both of the detonators. A second later, two explosions sounded, echoing down the tunnel, followed by three more in rapid succession. Kodi looked around again. All of the rockets the soldier had began to blow up too. They shot in every direction, including the train. The train exploded in a huge wall of fire that flew down the tunnel towards them.

Kodi dove into the pit of nasty water without a second thought, followed closely by Balto. The fire blew over their heads, heating the water up for a moment before it cooled back down. Both resurfaced and pulled themselves out of the water.

"Darn, now I'm all wet. You're lucky you got that suit." Balto complained. His security guard clothes were drenched, while the water seemed to just flow off of the HEV suit, and it was dry in seconds.

"Hey, I'd rather be wet then burned."

"True that."

Both of them looked down the tunnel again, and to their horror, saw that the roof had collapsed in due to all of the explosions.

"Where do we go now?"

Balto thought for a moment.

"I'm not sure, but I think I saw a tunnel underneath the water down there."

Kodi got back into the water and checked it out. There was indeed a small opening, but it was dark and he had no idea how long it was. How ironic it would be if they survived all of this, only to drown. But it was the only option available at that moment, so they took it.

Actually, Kodi couldn't drown, because he hadn't realized until then that the HEV suit had a built-in oxygen supply just for that very reason. It would only last about five or six minutes, but it was better than nothing. They swam along, and just when Balto felt his lungs were ready to explode they surfaced.

He gasped for breath, sucking the oxygen in greedily. Kodi looked around while his dad caught his breath. They were in another rail tunnel, but Kodi could hear the sound of steady wind blowing through this one.

"I think we're almost out of here." Balto said once he regained his breath.

They pulled themselves out, took ten minutes to dry off, and then walked along down the thin maintenance walkway on the side of the tracks. The tunnel didn't go very far and dead ended at a set of huge doors. Luckily there was a small door. It took them out into a small canyon, and finally, fresh air. It was a small canyon, the rock walls on each side too steep to climb. The rail track extended between a set of huge doors, the one on the left was the one Kodi and Balto had just seen from the inside. Both doors were closed, but thankfully, there was a third option. Another set of doors was across the tracks, and both of them made their way over there. One set of doors was open, the other was closed. Kodi and Balto stepped into the small room, and pressed the only available button. The doors behind them closed, and the doors in front opened up.

It revealed a large square area, again with rock walls to steep to climb. It was only then that Kodi realized it was night time.

Had he really been in here that long? The last time he'd seen the outside it was in the early morning. Now this was just a game… but still, that was a long time. It sure didn't feel like it though. To the right was a large and tough looking building, two stories high, the entrance to which was guarded by a pile of sand bags and three soldiers. Both parties noticed each other at the same time.

"Get Freeman!"

Kodi, who luckily had his shotgun in his hands, took aim and pulled the trigger all the way back, and the gun bucked in his hands as it ejected two shells simultaneously. It caught one soldier through the face, killing him instantly. The other two ducked down behind the sand bags and held their guns up, firing in Kodi's general direction.

Balto tossed his explosive charge over the sand bags and detonated it, sending all three bodies flying in separate directions.

"Wow, we work well together." Kodi commented.

"That we do, son." Balto replied.

In the middle of the large square area was a pit shaped like a cone, at the bottom of which was a set of large metal doors. Kodi and Balto ignored this, and stepped over the sand bags and into the building the soldiers had been guarding. It didn't take them long to realize that they'd finally made it to the rocket launch area. After ascending a small flight of stairs, they found the control room, a simple red button that read launch in the middle of it.

There were two small windows overlooking the court yard where Balto had just killed the soldiers. Although Kodi wasn't quite sure what a rocket was, he pressed the button anyways.

An alarm sounded, and Kodi heard the sound of doors opening up. Out of the cone shaped pit, an enormous pencil shaped object began to rise, slowly at first, but then faster. It was colored primarily white, but with some spots of orange and a grey Black Mesa logo on it. At last it rose out of the ground, and Kodi saw it's mighty engines, which were the same ones, he realized, that'd killed the tentacle creatures so long ago.

With a mighty burst of flame, the rocket blasted off into the sky, becoming smaller and smaller until it was nothing more than a dot amongst the many stars.

Kodi and Balto exited the room, and found nowhere else to go except back outside. They went back through the set of doors, and found that one of the giant rail doors had opened up.

It led them to another one of the spinning elevators, but this one appeared to be broken, so they used the ladder beside it. At the bottom was another train, ready and waiting to take them where ever they needed to go.

Balto and Kodi jumped on, started it up, and where on their way.

...

I found myself with nothing to do tonight and decided to just finish this chapter up. I'm sorry if there are errors in it, I'm very tired, as this day was pretty stressful for me. On another note though, only three more to go! This story should probably be finished in about a week, perhaps even less. I hope you'll like the end I've made, because I sure do.

-ANonymous


	23. Chapter 23: Apprehension

Chapter 23 – Apprehension

(A/N: Just a warning, this chapter has Balto and Kodi killing women. I mean nothing by it, but the assassins in Half-Life are women, so they're going to be women on here.

As soon as Kodi closed his eyes, the train jolted, and began to move even faster down the tunnel. He tried to stop it, but it wouldn't respond. It was almost as if something else was controlling it…

The track ahead had been damaged, presumably by the three soldiers who stood near it. The train hit the damaged section, Balto and Kodi hanging on for their lives. It flew off the track and smashed one of the soldiers, then barreled through a large garage door and plunged into a cylindrical chamber.

The chamber was rather large, and the bottom of it had somehow flooded. The train sank into the rather deep murky water, Balto and Kodi only just getting out of the way in time to not get smashed. They grabbed their respective weapons, and swam to the surface. Kodi took note of the many tunnels under the water, just in case they needed a way out.

When they surfaced, there were two walkways running around the circumference of the chamber, but they were too high to be reached.

So more underwater swimming it was. Balto picked a tunnel at random, and they swam through it. Aside from a partially collapsed corridor, it was not very difficult, and they soon were pulling themselves out of the water, walking up into a small hall way.

It took them for two left turns, before entering another flooded chamber. A scientist was running across a metal walkway that was running just above the water, when suddenly, a giant fish like thing jumped up and out of the water, snatching the man in its mouth before it landed on the walkway, collapsing it and causing it to sink into the water.

"What do we do now?" Balto wondered aloud.

"Wait."

Kodi took his shotgun and readied it, and holding the aimer firmly between his eyes. The giant fish would ever so often break the surface of the water, revealing a shiny reddish brownish body and a large fin.

Kodi waited until it came up again, aimed, and fired.

Most of the pellets missed, but a few hit it, enraging the fish. Kodi cocked the shotgun, and Balto began spraying bullets into the water with his machine gun, hoping to hit the wish. They couldn't see it, since the water was a murky green color, very nasty looking.

In a cage suspended from the ceiling, was a crossbow, waiting patiently for someone to go up and get it. The only way to get to said cage was to cross the walkway that led to a ladder at the far end of the room. The ladder led up to a small room, and from another exit in the room was a thin bar that extended out over the cage, allowing someone to walk on it and get the crossbow.

"We need to get up there." Kodi said. By now, he knew how this game worked. It often involved something more than just guns to kill the bigger aliens, and he was certain that the crossbow could help them somehow.

"The only way to get to that room is that walkway… and you saw what that thing did to the scientist…"

"We make a run for it."

Kodi counted down from three, and they took off running. Kodi made it to the ladder and began to climb when he heard a cry from behind him. The fish jumped up out of the water, and only barely missed Balto. From this close Kodi could see it had a nasty looking set of huge teeth. It was almost like a huge piranha. The weight of it smashed this walkway as well, and Balto was sent into the water, out of reach of the ladder.

Kodi unslung the shotgun from his shoulder, and with one hand lowered the end down to his dad.

"GRAB IT!" He ordered.

Balto took it in both hands, and Kodi, with a strength he didn't know he had, lifted Balto out of the water and onto the ladder below him. Both of them made it up the ladder unscathed. Balto had lost his gun in the process though, leaving him with nothing.

There was another scientist in the room, as well as two charging units for the HEV suit. Kodi put his hands on both of them, letting his suit and health recharge while the scientist spoke.

"Did you see it? They said it was hauled from the challenger deep… but I'm positive that beast never swam in terrestrial waters until a week ago…" he paused as if he said too much, but then continued.

"There's a tranquilizer gun in that shark cage, I'm not sure it will work on this species… you're welcome to try."

Kodi took off all of his weapon belts and ammo, and placed them on the floor. He then gave his shotgun to Balto.

"Where are you going?" Balto asked, even though he really didn't need to.

"To see if the gun works."

"Be careful."

Kodi made his way across the thin bar to the shark cage and dropped inside. The crossbow was of simple design; it had a large clip that held five big darts, which would be loaded by pulling back the slider mechanism on the crossbow. It also had a scope.

As soon as Kodi pulled back the slider, the cage collapsed sending him into the water. The cage clanged noisily to the bottom of the chamber. The fish swam around angrily for a few moments, before noticing him.

It charged him, slamming into the metal bars, very nearly tipping the cage over. Kodi fired the first dart, and it hit the fish just below its left eye. It seemed to go drowsy for a moment, before charging him again. It took all five darts to kill the fish, but it finally gave up and died. Kodi swam out of the top in the cage, taking the crossbow with him. He saw a few more clips for the gun down at the bottom of the chamber, and took them with him. He noticed another door underwater, and figured that would probably be the way out.

He burst out of the water, and a helpful hand from his dad brought him back up to the ladder and allowed him to climb back up to the control room.

"Good job! Is that for me?" Balto asked upon seeing the gun.

"Yep."

Kodi handed Balto the crossbow, and let him figure out how it worked while he got his ammo belts re attached to his body.

He looked over at his dad.

"We're gonna have to swim under water again, I saw another passage way."

"Darn, wet again."

Kodi and Balto swam through that door as well; luckily they didn't have to swim very far after that. They came up in a large room, this one thankfully not flooded. A ladder led to the floor, which was made of concrete, a refreshing change from all of the metal walkways.

At the far end of the room was another metal walkway, the ladder leading up to it broken half way down. There was a crate placed conveniently in the room, though, so that provided little challenge.

As they walked through the corridors, it began to get a lot colder in temperature, almost freezing Balto, whose clothes were still wet. That was another advantage of an HEV suit, it kept your body at a steady temperature. A stairwell led up to a room, two control panels lined up against the wall.

There were three electricity aliens in the room, who looked at them curiously. Kodi shot one through the eye with his revolver, and Balto shot the other. The force of the crossbow bolt pinned the body into one of the control panels. The third alien looked at them, fear evident on its expression. Kodi didn't hesitate to shoot it before it could do the same.

There was a glass door that was closed, behind which was a very small room, perhaps only five by six feet.

A scientist stood in the room, and he immediately opened the door. Balto went inside gratefully, feeling the warm air drying him and unfreezing him.

As soon as they were in, the man closed the door again.

"Gordon Freeman, it is you isn't it, the science team has been tracking your progress with the Black Mesa security system… unfortunately, so is the military. Still, it's better than going naked in this place. It's cold in there," He said, gesturing to the very tough looking steel door opposite the glass one," And it could zap your suit power in a matter of moments. If you're bent on reaching the Lambda Complex, you'll want to stick to the older industrial areas. It's worked for me, so far."

"So does that mean I can't go in?" Balto asked.

"Not like that you can't; fortunately, I have something here for you." The scientist opened a small closet and pulled out a white suit, sort of like Kodi's. "This will protect you for a few seconds, and you may have enough time to get across the room."

Kodi helped his dad get the suit on, and then they were ready to go.

"Good luck."

The man opened the door, and immediately, the cold hit them. Kodi could even feel it through his suit.

They ran, luckily not far, and to a ladder that led down to what looked like a storage area. Even after that short little run, Balto's suit was nearly frozen solid.

Kodi helped him get the thing off, before they continued on. The corridor led them to a large elevator, which made a lot of noise as they ascended it.

The black boots of a security guard came in to view, and shortly after, so did the rest of the man. Beyond him was what looked like a massive storage complex, crates, both metal and wooden alike stacked up everywhere, creating a veritable maze.

"Freeman right, I've got a message for you, make sure you don't-" with a sudden pop, the back of the guards head exploded, and his body fell to the ground.

Kodi dove for cover behind a metal crate, Balto right behind him.

"What the hell was that?" Balto cursed softly.

"How would I know?" Kodi shot back.

Balto said nothing. Both of them waited for a few moments, before Kodi stuck his head around the crate. He saw a thin person, dressed in a completely black suit, and with some sort of strange orange goggles over… her eyes?

The figure certainly looked like a woman. She aimed a pistol at him that looked like the pistols the security guards used, except with a funny looking device attached to the end of the barrel. It was a silencer.

She fired her weapon, and it made a distinctive pop as the bullets were fired. She fired a total of four, and Kodi aimed his revolver to return fire, but then the strangest thing happened. The woman disappeared in thin air.

"She's gone!" Kodi exclaimed, completely forgetting to keep his voice low.

"What?"

"She just disappeared!"

Kodi saw a small flash, and a bullet hit him in the chest.

"Watch for the flash of her gun."

Kodi tucked away the revolver for the shotgun. Since he couldn't see her, he needed a scatter-gun, it would give him more of a chance of hitting her.

He heard the tapping of her footsteps as she ran closer.

Kodi aimed his gun at where he hoped she would be.

She hopped around the corner, and Kodi saw only the faintest of outlines, right in the crosshairs of his shotgun. He fired, and red blood spattered against the crate behind the woman, her body reappearing when she died.

She dropped her pistol, and Balto picked it up.

They both heard several more tapping footsteps and groaned. More of these things?

Kodi and Balto advanced slowly, the latter with his crossbow scope pressed firmly against his eye. Balto saw something move in between two crates, and shot. The crossbow bolt caught the assassin right through the chest, pinning her to the box behind her.

From two sides of the room, more popping noises sounded, letting Balto and Kodi know that there were at least two more of these killer women. Most of the bullets were aimed at Kodi, but one hit Balto right through the left leg, just above the knee.

Since he didn't have a suit like Kodi, any bullets that didn't hit his armor vest would hurt like a normal bullet. He cried out and fell to the ground, somehow managing to keep a grip on his crossbow.

Kodi immediately took his dads hand and took him behind the nearest crate.

"You alright?" he asked worriedly.

"No, but don't worry about me. Kill these things."

Balto then reloaded his crossbow, and pulled himself into a position so he could see most of the storage area without exposing himself too much. He noticed movement, and fired, killing a third assassin.

Kodi snuck off into the maze of crates, which was a stupid move, because as soon as he was out of sight of Balto the assassin came down on him, knife at the ready. Tackled Kodi to the ground and threw his shotgun out of his reach. She then attempted to stab him, but the knife barely dented the HEV suits hard metal breast plate. Kodi grabbed the woman's wrist and twisted, causing her to drop her knife. He kicked her in the face and she went stumbling back. Kodi had enough time to get out his revolver and shoot her through the chest.

She glanced down at the large hole through her then back at Kodi.

"Fuck you." She said, then fell to the ground, dead. Kodi picked himself and his shotgun up, and headed back to his dad.

"Did you get her?"

"I did."

"Good, now see if-"Before Balto could say anything else, though, the lights went dark, and they were both knocked unconscious.

. . . .

Shadow had come to a decision. After watching Kodi and his father take down the assassins with ease, he and his fellow 'masters' decided to try and take them out of the game.

This wasn't supposed to be happening. No one was supposed to make it past them! No one ever had! In a way, those assassins were perhaps the toughest fight in the whole game, except for the last one, of course.

All four of the 'masters' walked angrily down the hall towards Steel's room. When the door opened, it revealed two metal boxes, one containing Kodi, and the other, Balto. Steel was sat at the control panel, watching the two as they performed in the game on a screen.

He whirled around to meet them.

"What-"

Shadow shoved him out of the way, and pressed the emergency shut off button, deactivating the game instantly. He and his fellows knew the dangers of doing this. It was possible they could be stripped of their powers, and all of the prisoners ever caught by the game released. But after a few minutes of no alarms sounding, which would've indicated mass prisoner release, they figured they were safe.

Just to make sure, Shadow lashed out at one of the others. As expected, the wound healed almost instantaneously.

"You-" Steel attempted to speak again, but he was silenced as another master shoved him up against the wall.

"Shut up." Shadow said. "Did you really think we didn't know you put Balto into the game? Now you've just ruined his life as well."

While one master made sure that Steel did not move, the other three opened the boxes containing Kodi and Balto.

. . . .

Kodi felt himself being pulled out of the box he was in. He was back in his own body, and it felt good after being trapped in there for so long. The master sat on top of him did not feel good, as he was being pinned down.

Kodi looked around, and saw Steel up against the wall, and his father pinned by another master beside him.

"Hello Kodi, Balto. I'm Shadow. I must say, that was a brilliant performance you two put on, unfortunately it won't be enough to save your lives." Now speaking to his two companions, the two who held Balto and Kodi, he ordered, "Kill them."

...

Two more to go folks! Isn't it exciting? I can't wait to write it, and I would be doing that right now... if there wasn't such a thing as real life. We'll see, though, if I have time, I might begin the next chapter tonight and then have it on by this time tomorrow.

Until then, peace.

-ANonymous


	24. Chapter 24: Final Battle, Part 1

Chapter 24 - The Final Battle, Part 1

"You cheated!" Kodi exclaimed.

Shadow got down into Kodi's face.

"This isn't a sled dog race, kid. We don't get in trouble for cheating because guess what? We're the masters! We rule this whole world, and you're pathetic if you actually believed you could beat us! You can't do anything, kid."

"We'll see about that."

Kodi reared up, and kicked the stunned master off of him. He rolled away and slashed the one who was holding his father in the face, but gasped when he saw the wound heal right before his eyes.

Shadow and the others laughed evilly.

"I forgot to tell you, we're immortal."

They shoved Kodi and Balto up against the wall beside Steel, who looked at them.

"I'm so sorry." He said, his head hung low, ears flattened against his head.

It was all a ploy though. He leapt at the four masters who were still recovering, and bowled through them and to the control panel. He rapidly pressed the buttons on it.

"Kodi, get in the chamber!"

"But-"

"Go! It's our only chance!"

Balto shoved Kodi into the box and closed it, right as Shadow slammed into him.

Another thing about them was they were very strong, partly due to practice, and partly due to their advanced technology, which allowed them to actually make themselves stronger, to augment themselves.

Steel pressed the button, and Kodi was launched back into the world of Half-Life. Steel made sure that the screen was off before turning around to help Balto.

He saw Balto get hit and fly head first into the wall. The wolf-dog shook off the blow and got back up.

Steel joined his side.

"You're all pathetic? You really think you have a chance? We're gonna have fun torturing you."

Steel smiled a bit. They didn't know where he'd sent Kodi. Kodi had gone to the end of Half-Life, the very end. If he could beat the final boss, the masters would be stripped of their powers, and become a lot easier to beat. And on top of that, all of the prisoners would be set free. The fate of Steels world rested in Kodi's paws. Steel and Balto only had to buy him enough time.

. . . .

When Kodi awoke, he found out he still had his suit, revolver, and shotgun. He also had a bolt action sniper rifle with a powerful scope. When he picked himself up, the alien he saw made him almost faint.

The thing was big. Not big, huge, so huge it looked like it could pick him up with one of its long spindly arms if it wanted to. It had pale brownish skin and was similar in features to a human baby, albeit a giant one. It had a huge head, a big midsection with a third claw arm protruding from it, and comparatively small legs. It looked like it was floating on some sort of a metal platform.

Kodi took a moment to examine his surroundings. He was in an even larger circular chamber that seemed to be made entirely of rock. There were no words to describe how big the area was. Attached to the walls on three sides of the chamber, so very high above Kodi's head, were three large yellow crystals shaped like pyramids that pointed outwards, that literally coursed with energy. He could see it from all the way down here.

Kodi only then noticed he was on a floating platform, and at least fifty feet below him was the floor. It wasn't really a floor though, it was more like a watery pit. Large spikes came up out of the water, and pointed up towards the mammoth creature that floated beside him. Rising up out of the water as well were three weird looking circular things, and when he looked, he noticed that they were positioned below the crystals.

"Freemaaann….." the creature said, it's voice like thunder. With a wave of its giant arms, it somehow sent a field of energy at Kodi that crushed the small floating platform he was on, and sent him falling into the pit below.

Fifty feet was high, and he was sure he'd be dead. But the strange thing was, the gravity here seemed to be a lot less. Instead of falling like a rock, he floated down more like a piece of paper or a leaf, landing in the shallow reddish water with barely a splash. From down here he could see how big some of the spikes were, and he realized what this was.

It was some sort of an arena, for him to fight this creature.

He looked up at it, and it gazed down on him as if daring him to try something. Kodi noticed something else about it too. It had a circle of yellow-y energy spheres circling around its head, sort of like a crown.

Kodi raised his shotgun and unloaded shell after shell until he'd used up all eight. With every shell he fired, Kodi noticed that some of the energy spheres circling around the creature disappeared, and when they did so it's wounds were healed. He figured that if he shot it enough, it wouldn't be able to heal, and would die. Kodi only hoped he had enough bullets.

As soon as he went to reload, he saw the creature float up to the yellow crystals, and with an amazing flash of yellow light, a stream of energy from each crystal went out to the creature, and replenished its supply of energy spheres.

Now it attacked.

It brought all three of its arms together; much like the electricity aliens had, and gathered energy seemingly from thin air. It unleashed at least ten balls of blue electric at him that were at least as big as a small car. Kodi managed to dodge all but one, which hit the HEV suit. It glowed blue for a moment as it absorbed the energy, and it still hurt a lot. The force threw Kodi hard against one of the spikes. That had taken forty power and twenty health, leaving him with 80 health 60 power. Kodi looked up in time to see another wave bearing down on him, and only just managed to crawl behind the spike in time.

The electric hit the spike harmlessly. This gave Kodi a chance. He switched the shotgun for the rifle, and brought it up to his arm. Looking through the scope was a lot more difficult due to the HEV suit helmet, but he managed to do it, and took aim at one crystal. He fired a shot, and a moment later saw it hit home, the crystal exploding in a brilliant shower of small pieces. He shot the other two and they exploded similarly. Kodi then whirled around the spike and unloaded everything the rifle had upon the creature, until it clicked dry. That had severely diminished the creatures supply of energy. Looking down at his ammo belts, he realized he had no more bullets for it, and tossed it away.

He was about to charge out again, when he realized that he'd forgotten to reload the shotgun. He did so, and found out that he was now out of ammo for that. He checked his revolver. It only had one bullet. He had no more ammo for that as well. Kodi sighed.

He whirled around again in time to receive another energy ball to the chest, taking even more precious power from him and sending him hurtling back even further.

_We'll see about that._

Kodi forced himself to get up and opened fire again. He ran as he did, still shooting and dodging electric balls at the same time.

When the shotgun clicked empty, he threw it away and ran for the nearest spike. As he did, he noticed all of the circling energy orbs were gone, and then somehow, the creatures head split into three petals, almost like a flower opening up towards the sun. It still fired on him, but now only one electric ball instead of a wave, and significantly smaller Kodi noticed.

In the way of him was one of the three circle things he'd spied when he first entered, and, thinking nothing of it, leapt over it.

With a whooshing noise, Kodi was sent high up into the air, far past the creature. He noticed that, inside of its head was a large ball of pure white energy. Kodi took his crowbar, which he only just realized he still had, in his left hand, the revolver in the right. He managed to catch onto one of the three petals of the creatures head, embedding the crowbar deep into its flesh. He pulled himself up and inside of the head, making sure to get his crowbar out. He took the revolver, and fired directly into the white orb. The creature let out a booming cry, and began to shake horribly. Kodi was thrown out of its head, losing both the crowbar and the revolver along the way. As he fell back to the ground, the creature slowly began to rise until it reached the top of the chamber, where blue electric lashed out from the walls, into the creature, and down upon him. It grew ever brighter until, with one final flash, everything went dark.

. . . .

Balto was thrown again into the metal wall, his head spinning from the impact. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. He certainly hoped that whatever Kodi was doing, he did it fast.

He and Steel had been fighting – no – more like distracting Shadow and the Masters for at least a half an hour now, and it was taking its toll on him. He felt like his whole body was one huge bruise, and it was quite an effort to rise to his feet again.

"You know, you're pretty tough Balto." Shadow taunted, "You'd make a fine warrior in our army."

"Never."

"I thought you'd say that."

Shadow brought his paw back down on Balto's head, then hit him yet again, and tossed him towards the control panel, where Steel was as well.

Balto couldn't rise again. He tried, but it was no use, he couldn't even see straight. It looked like there were four Shadows.

"It's time to end this. Say goodnight, wolf dog."

"Good night." Steel said coldly, and slammed a paw down on the control panel. How he knew at that exact moment that Kodi had beaten Half-Life, Balto would never know, but he was more than grateful. On the screen flashed the image of the final monster dying, blue electric literally cutting it apart. Then with a final flash, the screen went dark.

Upon seeing this, all four of the masters began to shake involuntarily, much like the alien had. Their powers were being stripped from them. It started small, but eventually all four of them were writhing around on the floor like a fish out of water.

Shadow was in shock. How had this happened? He knew he wouldn't die from this, but it was most likely that Steel would kill him. Shadow would not let that happen. He cried out as he rose, and made one last desperate lunge at Balto. Steel moved to block him, but he wasn't trying to kill the wolf-dog. Instead, he wrapped his paws around Balto's neck, and, using his power of time travel for the last time, sent both he and Balto back to Nome. Even if he wasn't immortal any more, he would still try to do as much damage as he could to Kodi's family.

Steel watched as they both disappeared before his eyes. Instead of dwelling on it, though, he went to two of the other masters and sunk his teeth deep into their necks, enjoying, in some primitive way, the feel of their warm blood trickling into his mouth and onto the metal floor.

Walking to the third one, he saw genuine fear in its eyes.

"No…"

"You have no idea how long I've wanted and waited to do this."

This was the master that Steel had the most hate for. Before they'd come to his time, he'd had a family, humans and dogs alike, and a pretty female. It'd been so long since he'd seen her that he forgot what she looked like, and even her name. He'd forgotten his own name too. But he remembered what this dog did to her. This one had tortured her in front of his eyes, to break him into becoming a slave. To break his will, his way, everything.

When he'd been sent to get Balto, some of it had returned. Here was a dog that had a good chance to beat the game. In the end his son had. Kodi had done the unimaginable. When he won, he'd restored the lives of the many prisoners that'd been caught by the game, as well as the lives of all of Steels planet.

But Balto wasn't out of danger yet, and neither were the dogs of Nome. Even though Shadow had been stripped of his power, he was still an extremely dangerous dog, and a very skilled fighter.

. . . .

Kodi woke to the smell of blood, and rose immediately, pounding on the walls of the box he was in. A moment later, Steel opened the door, and Kodi smelled blood, a lot of it. He looked around the room and saw three dead masters.

"I did it? I did it!"

"You did, but Shadow's got your dad. I'm sure they went back to Nome."

"What, how? I thought he was supposed to be stripped of power!"

"He used the last of his to send both him and your father back to Nome. Everyone there is in danger, Kodi. He wants revenge on your family."

"Get me there." Kodi growled, "If he dares touch them, I'll kill him."

Steel led Kodi back to the same room he'd originally arrived here in. Steel told him to get up onto the platform while he set the thing up. He set the machine to send them back to Nome, just outside of town instead of to the cave, so that way they wouldn't have to walk back to said town.

Steel pressed a button, and hurried to join Kodi on the platform. Three things began to rotate around them, faster and faster, until with a flash, they were gone, back into Kodi's world.

...

One more to go, people. I hope you can wait a few days for the conclusion, because you might have to :/. Real life sucks at times. I will do my best though, to have it here by tomorrow or Saturday, or at the very latest, the end of the weekend.

And please, people. I get at least eleven hits per chapter since moving this to the cross over section, so it would be nice if some more of you folks would leave a review! It might help me write faster..

Peace.

-ANonymous


	25. Chapter 25: Finale

Chapter 25

When the bright white light finally faded, Kodi found himself and Steel just outside of Nome, and sure enough, there was evidence that Shadow had been there. Kodi started to head towards the town, but stopped. The last time he'd been there, they had wanted to kill him, or at least find him. Balto had said that he was going after Kodi alone. Even though Balto had only been gone for about a week, it was still enough time to put their minds at work. There were all kinds of rumors floating around about Kodi.

Now if he were to just waltz in and talk about all that had just happened to him, it would just confirm the label of 'crazy' that he likely already had.

"I need to clean myself off." Steel said.

Kodi turned to look at him, and saw that he had a lot of blood streaked on his fur, and that looked quite suspicious.

"You can go ahead if you want to." He added.

"I can't, they want to hurt me, remember?"

Steel frowned. "Damn, I forgot about that. This will be a lot harder. I could always go in, since they probably don't suspect me quite as much."

"If possible, talk to my mom. She's probably worried sick about dad and I."

It took Steel only a few minutes to clean himself off, before he went into town. He received quite a number of suspicious looks but no one approached him. He looked around for a good hiding space that Shadow could use. The dog was smart. He would likely try to hide in a place with a lot of people and animals. Safety in numbers and all that.

Steel did notice Jenna though. The red female was on the side of the street opposite of him. He pricked an ear as he walked by to try to catch a bit of her conversation.

Steel didn't hear too much, but from what he did hear, it sounded like Kodi was correct. She was very much worried about her son and mate. _If only she knew what danger he is in now. _It was only mid-day in Nome, just a little past noon. It was Sunday, and most of the folks in town were congregated at the local church, leaving the town largely abandoned, except for the dogs.

Steel saw a flash of red moving across some of the rooftops, and noticed it as Kodi. How foolish was he? Coming in here in the middle of day?

Unfortunately, Steel was not the only one to see Kodi.

Someone else saw him, and they immediately raised an alert.

"It's Kodi!"

Said dog walked right to the edge of a roof, and looked down upon the dogs in the town.

"You gotta help me! Balto's in serious danger from a dog named Shadow, he's mostly black, and pretty large too."

More and more dogs began to gather, some of them debating whether or not Kodi's story was true.

"You gotta believe me! I know I've done something to make you doubt my word, and even my intention, but don't let my dad die for it."

Someone in the crowd called back. "I bet you killed him yourself!"

Doc, the dog who served as the town judge for dogs, silenced him and spoke to Kodi.

"Come down and we'll escort you to the mill, you'll be given a fair trial for your crimes, and an opportunity to prove yourself innocent."

Something snapped in Kodi's head. The saw mill! To someone who didn't know about Nome, that would be the perfect place to hide! It was abandoned on Sundays, since people usually didn't use said saws then.

Steel came forward as well.

"It was not Kodi who attacked Dusty, I did. And yes, his father is in danger, extreme danger, as are you all. If we don't find Shadow, we could be in trouble."

Kaltag, one of the dogs who'd once been on Steels team, when he was pretending to be a sled dog to get Balto, confronted him.

"You could be lying too! Why should we trust you?"

Kodi took this time to slowly sneak away, and it wasn't for a few minutes that anyone had noticed.

"Kodi's gone!"

There was a flurry of comments at once.

"Search for him! All over town!"

Steel was taken to the boiler room, where he would be kept as a prisoner until Kodi was found. It was not good. Now Kodi would likely have to fight Shadow alone.

. . . .

Kodi had gotten out of town, and was at the entrance to the mill. He pushed the doors open slowly and entered. Once he got about five feet in, the doors slammed shut behind him. Kodi turned to face who he knew was already there. It was Shadow. The dog was indeed smart, as he pushed the board into the slots on the doors, locking Kodi in, and the rest of the town out.

"Kodi, how nice of you to join me! Now your dad can watch as I kill you too!"

"You're not immortal anymore, so you better be careful." Kodi informed him.

In front of a stack of boards, lay the beaten and hurt figure of Balto. Shadow had broken two of his legs to make sure he didn't go anywhere. His eyes were silently pleading Kodi to run, to jump out a window, or something.

"I'm not leaving you here."

Shadow took a step toward Kodi, and Kodi took a step back.

"Aww… you afraid? You should be."

Shadow again took a few steps towards Kodi, who this time stood his ground. With a lightning fast movement, Shadow's paw flashed out aiming for Kodi's head. He only barely ducked in time, and felt the claws swish through his fur.

Shadow lashed again, this time catching Kodi in the face. The first thing he realized was that the dog was incredibly strong, which he learned when he went tumbling to the ground. Kodi rolled over, and came up on his feet.

"Impressive."

Shadow lashed out for a third time, his paw connecting with Kodi's left shoulder. The dog was so strong Kodi went through the air a good six feet before smashing his head into the side of the huge saw machine. Shadow walked over to him, and took Kodi's neck fur in his teeth, swinging him around in such a way that he went flying again, this time into a wall.

Kodi's whole left side went numb from that blow, and it was quite difficult for him to get up. He was already this tired, and Shadow was only playing with him. He couldn't imagine what would happen if Shadow got serious. Kodi took a few steps forward, trying to ignore the horrible pain in his head.

Shadow tried to lash him again, but Kodi had taken enough. Anger powering him, he swiftly ducked and took Shadows other forepaw in his mouth. He jerked and this time it was Shadow who fell to the ground, nowhere near as hard as Kodi had though. Still it felt good.

Shadow was on his feet in an instant. Both he and Kodi got up onto their back legs, but it was not a smart choice for Kodi. Shadow got the better of him in only a few seconds, and pushed him back and into a button.

The saw machine started warming up, the blades slowly spinning faster and faster until it was deafeningly loud. The conveyer belt that humans would put logs on started moving as well.

The sound of the mill being started alerted the dogs that were searching for Kodi, and they all hurried towards building.

Kodi's vision was blurry; it looked like there were two Shadows. He tried to shake it away, but to no avail. Shadow lifted him up again, and placed him on the conveyer belt that was normally reserved for logs, and slowly climbed up and sat on top of Kodi, who was on his back.

Kodi knew what Shadow was going to do. The belt was moving ever so slowly, and the way Shadow had him pinned aligned his head with the row of spinning saw blades. Shadow intended to decapitate him.

Kodi immediately started struggling, but could barely do anything due to the crushing weight on top of him. By now the first group of dogs had arrived, and had begun shouting and banging on the door. As the saw blade came closer, Kodi became more frantic. Before that saw was another one, that was just above where Shadows head would be in a few seconds. Kodi saw the lever that would lower it, but there was no way he could get to it.

"I'm gonna miss you Kodi!" Shadow said over the roar of the saw machine.

"I'm going to miss you too!" Kodi shot back.

Summoning every ounce of strength he had, Kodi convulsed as if he were trying to cough something up. It barely moved Shadow, but it was enough. He freed one of his back legs and kicked at the lever to lower blade. His paw hit it dead on, and with a loud clang, the saw lowered.

It cut right into Shadow's neck, spraying Kodi's face and chest with literally buckets of dark crimson blood. Kodi scrambled off the conveyer belt, receiving a small nick in his ear from the same saw blade that had killed Shadow. It was a very small wound though, at least in comparison to what had happened to Shadow. Kodi got over to his dad as fast as he could and fell down beside him.

Upon hearing the sound of flesh on saw blades, the dogs at the door increased their efforts to get in the door. With one final push of about twenty dogs, they broke the board that held the doors in place, and poured in.

They saw a bloody Kodi, a hurt Balto, and a decapitated Shadow. Most turned away from the horrible sight, but one pressed the button to deactivate the saw mill and the blades slowly wore down until they stopped completely. They finally realized that Kodi had been telling the truth about not hurting Dusty.

Some dogs stepped forward, most notably, his mom. She hurried to Balto's side, comforting and reassuring him.

Kaltag went up to Kodi.

"I guess you were telling the truth. You didn't hurt her, not the second time."

Kodi shook his head.

"Where have you been all this time? And who the hell is this guy?"

"That's a long story…" Kodi began.

"Tell us! But first you go get yourself cleaned up."

While Kodi did so, Balto was taken to the doctor as well, where they learned that his broken legs were actually only dislocated. It was an easy but painful fix, and Balto would need to rest for a while, as he did still have a number of bruises on his body.

Later that night, a lot of dogs gathered in the boiler room, where Kodi, Balto, and Steel told their story.

Not many believed it, but that was to be expected. The three of them knew the truth though.

Steel had said he would take full consequences for his actions, but Dusty, being the compassionate dog she was, decided not to punish anyone, but to instead forgive them. It would take a while for the dogs to trust Kodi again, some would never trust him again. Kodi and his friends would eventually make up though, and he was thrilled to find out that he'd be able to run in the mail team next year.

Steel left Nome the next day, saying that it was time for him to return to his own time, but not without talking to Kodi first.

"I can't thank you enough Kodi. By beating that game, you freed my world. You restored our lives."

"Nah, I only did it because I wanted to keep my dad safe."

"And in doing so you freed my world."

"You bought me the time."

"Roles reversed, I could've never done what you did. You're a hero, Kodi. To my entire world." Steel left it at that, and headed off towards the mountains in the distance to use the time travel machine one last time.

What Steel said was true. For many generations in Steels time, Kodi would be remembered as the one who freed them. The one who restored their lives.

...

That's it. As I sit here looking back on this, I feel quite proud of myself. This isn't the first fic I've written, but it's the first I've stuck with and actually completed. I hope you enjoyed reading it, because I sure as hell enjoyed writing it. It feels good to finally have this out of my head. I don't know where I'll go from here, I'd like to keep on writing, the only problem is lack of ideas... if you have any, you can feel free to leave an idea in a review or a PM. With a good weekend here, I might think something else up though.

That brings me to another note. Reviews. Mike and Mojo, I cannot say how much your comments helped me. It really was encouraging to know that two people were out there that cared about this story. Thanks guys. And to anyone else, feel free to leave any comments if you want to.

Until next time,

Peace.

ANonymousReviewer7


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